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BOOK © 1" BEAUTY. 


Young People’s Series, No, 12, 

BEADLE AND ADAMS, 98 WILLIAM STREET, N. Y. 
The National News 0o M New York. 























1776 Dollar Books for a Dime ! 1876 


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IV. —ETHAN ALLEN. 

V.-MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE. 

VI.—DANIEL BOONE. 

VII-DAVID CROCKETT. 

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BEADLE AND ADAMS. Publishers. 98 William St., TSL Y. | 







THE DIME 


BOOK OF BEAUTY: 


EMBRACING 


THE POWER OF BEAUTY, 

BEAUTY OF FORM AND COLOR, 

BEAUTY OF THE HEAD AND HAIR, 

BEAUTY OF THE UPPER FACE, 

BEAUTY OF THE LOWER FACE, 

BEAUTY OF THE COMPLEXION AND SKIN, 
BEAUTY OF DRESS AND ADORNMENT, ETC., 


AND CHAPTERS ON PERFUMES, COSMETICS, ETC., 

WITH VALUABLE RECIPES. 



BY MRS. MARION LEE STEPHENS. 

it 



BEADLE AND ADAMS, PUBLISHERS, 


98 WILEIAM STREET. 




fh> % 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by 
BEADLE AND ADAMS, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 

, - \ 


? 











V- 





'£ 




\ * 










*N. 

^ r) 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER 1. 

The power ol beauty—Former objections, to discussion of the sub¬ 
ject—Changes of opinion—Greek value for beauty—Taste for 
beauty, and how formed—Passages from the ancient and modern 
poets—Necessity of a just sense of the beautiful, - - - 9 

CHAPTER II. 

Beauty of form—What we owe to it—Beauty in the present day 
a national possession—Duty of preserving good looks—The 
figure—Shoulders—Waist—Feet—Walk—Methods of improving 
the figure and walk—Exercise and diet,.14 

CHAPTER III. 

Form and color—The beauty of the arm—Outline—Color—Move¬ 
ments—The hand—Shape—Color—Nails—To whiten the hands 
—Red hands—Cause and cure—Expression of the hand—Man¬ 
ipulations—Rings,.20 

CHAPTER IV. 

The head and hair—Shape of the head—Breadth—Depth—Pose 
on the shoulders—Hair—Colors—Quantity—Gray hair—Dyeing 
and its effects—Strengthening the hair—Modes of dressing it, 23 

CHAPTER V. 

The upper part of the face—The forehead—Eyes—Eyelids—Eye¬ 
brows, .30 

CHAPTER VI 

The lower part of the face—The ears—Ear-rings—Jaw—Cheeks— 
Nose—The mouth—Its expression—Causes of its shape—Color 
of the lips—Their shape—The teeth—How to preserve them— 
The chin,.33 

CHAPTER VII. 

Complexion—English complexions—Cosmetics—Scripture not¬ 
ice of painting the face—Danger of white paint and rouge — Milk 
as a cosmetic—Nature of the skin explained—How to preserve 
it—Soft water— Effects of hard water and soap—Hot water - 
Cold water—Animal grease— Oil — Violet powder — Early rising 
—ReceijAs,.40 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Dress with respect to beauty—Power of dress on beauty—Fashion 
—Why so imperative—Long-past fashions—Form and color— 
M. de Chevreul on color—Its effect on the complexion—Lace, a 
gray color—Size affected by color—Stripes—Throat: shortened 
or lengthened—Adaptations of dress to different ages, - - 53 







viii 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER IX. 

">ress with respect to beauty—Gloves: fit, cut, length, color— 
Boots: effect on size of foot—Artistic dress—The girl—The 
matron—the old lady,.62 

CHAPTER X. 

Care of beauty in infancy—Beauty to be thought of in infancy— 
Inseparable from health — Preserving the complexion—Air, 
exercise, diet—Bath—Light—Tanning and freckling—Eyelashes 
—Teeth—Gums—Figure—Walking—Reclining—Feet exercises 
—Hair—Eyes,.66 

CHAPTER XI. 

Oriental perfumes, cosmetics, etc., as associated with beauty, - 70 



THE 


BOOK OF BEAIJTY. 


CHAPTER I. 

THE POWER OF BEAUTY— FORMER OBJECTIONS TO DISCUSSION 

OF THE SUBJECT-CHANGES OF OPINION-GREEK VALUE 

FOR BEAUTY-TASTE FOR BEAUTY, AND HOW FORMED- 

PASSAGES FROM THE ANCIENT AND MODERN POETS-NECES¬ 

SITY OF A JUST SENSE OF THE BEAUTIFUL. 

Beauty, which is one of the great powers of the world, 
has been so much discussed by the philosophers and poets of 
all ages, that it has become a difficult subject to write about 
in these latter ages. Yet, before beginning the more practical 
portion of this book, we are tempted to say a few words on 
the subject, as some excuse for calling attention to the mat¬ 
ter at all. 

With certain people it was at one time considered a sinful 
vanity to think about personal beauty. The body was to be 
treated by all wise people with contemptuous indifference. 
The subject of good looks was to be eschewed in the presence 
of children; and the most lovely young girl was never per¬ 
mitted to become aware of her personal perfections (so far as 
her guardians could prevent it) till she learned them suddenly 
by her success in society. 

This-was surely a greater trial to her moral nature than if 
she had from infancy heard that God had bestowed a great 
and precious gift on her, which she must learn to use aright, 
and of which she had no just reason to be proud. 

We have changed all this; muscular Christianity restored 
to the human frame that due regard which all men owe to it; 
and the new and more artistic sense of beauty which our new 



10 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


civilization encourages and fosters, lias reudered people more 
inclined to discuss beauty as an important and valuable gift, 
which, like all other good gifts of Heaven, requires and de¬ 
serves our careful attention. 

The wise Greeks ever estimated it at its just value. Aris¬ 
totle has told us that a graceful person is a more powerful 
recommendation than the best letter that can be written in 
one’s favor; Socrates called it “a short-lived tyranny,” thus, 
at least, acknowledging its power; Theophrastus termed it t 
“ a silent fraud,” meaning that it can impose on us without 
the aid of language; Carneades calls it “ royalty without 
force,” i. e. } a sway which requires no effort to enforce it. 

Knowing and feeling this, they cultivated personal beauty, 
till they became the first in form as in intellect of the human 
race—a connection inevitable, by-the-by, when the former is 
really perfect; for without the inner soul of beauty there is 
no external perfection. 

The idea of beauty differed then, however, as it does now, 
amongst various nations, each selecting that type most char¬ 
acteristic of its nationality. The stately aquiline-featured 
Roman women were as beautiful in Roman eyes as if they 
had possessed the delicate brow and straight nose of the 
Greeks; and the dusky splendor of the Etliiop Queen was 
doubtless thought superior to both by her countrymen. This 
preference for a familiar cast of features and complexion, is 
doubtless a blessing to the nations, but has led to strange no¬ 
tions of beauty—the type degenerating with the intelligence 
and civilization of the peoples, till we get the flattened head, 
the enormous under-lip, and other disfigurements of the sav¬ 
ages. 

The taste for beauty requires cultivation, and both in 
Europe and America has probably been preserved through 
the changes of time and fashion, by the poets, even more 
than by the painters. 

Here is a very vivid picture of Greek beauty, translated by 
Moore: 

Best of painters, come portray 
The lovely maid that’s far away— 

Far away, my soul, thou art, 

But I’ve thy beauties all by heart. 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


11 


Paint her jetty ringlets straying, 

Silky twine in tendrils playing; 

“ And if painting bath the skill 

To make the spicy halm distil, 

Let every little lock exhale 
A sigh of perfume on the gale. 

Where her tresses 1 curly flow, 

Darkles o’er the b ow cf snow, 

Let her forehead beam to light, 

Burnished as the ivory bright; 

Let her eyebrows sweetly rise 
In jetty arches o’er her eyes: 

Gently in a crescent gliding— 

Just commingling—just dividing. 

But hast thou any sparkles warm, 

The lightning of her eyes to form? 

Let them effuse the azure ray 

With which Minerva’s glances play. 
***** 

O’er her nose and cheek bo shed 
Flushing white and mel ow red— 

Gradual tints, as when there glows 
In snowy milk the bashful rose. 

tls •?» 

Paint where the ruby cell uncloses: 

Persuasion sleeping upon roses; 

* * * The veivet chin, 

Whose dimple shades a love within. 

A very perfect picture of external beauty this, yet lackin 
a something, to be supplied by the poets of another and 
better civilization. 

“ The Romans,” says Longepierre, “were so convinced of 
the power of beauty, that they used a word implying strength 
in the place of the epithet ‘beautiful.’” They admired au¬ 
burn or golden hair, and dyed their dark locks of that color. 
The taste lingered long in Italy, and in the sixteenth century, 
golden locks were immortalized by the great Italian painters. 

The poets of Christendom have idealized a higher order of 
beauty—that in which moral and intellectual loveliness in¬ 
form and exalt mere matter. Compare Spenser’s Una with 
the Greek beauty, and the difference will be at once preceptible: 
From her fair head her fillet she undight, 

And laid her stole asice ; her angel's face 
As the great eye of heaven shined bright, 

And made a sunshine in thar shady place— 

Did n ver mortal eye behold such heavenly grace. 


£C OQ 


12 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


Or read the description of Spenser’s bride: 

Her long loose yellow locks, like golden wire, 

Sprinkled with pearl and pearling flowers atween, 

Do like a golden mantle her attire, 

And being crowned with a ga-land green, 

Seem like some maiden queen. 

Her modest eyes, abashed to behold 
So many gazers as on her do stare, 

Upon the lowly ground aflixed are; 

Nor dare lift, up her countenance too bold, 

But blush to hear her praises sung so loud. 

* * * * * * 

Tell me, ye merchants’ daughters, did ye see 
So fair a creature in your town before ? 

So sweet, so lovely, and so mild as she, 

Adorned with Beauty’s grace and Virtue’s store ? 

Her goodly eyes like sapphires shining bright; 

Her forehead ivory white ; 

Her cheeks like apples which the sun hath rudded ; 

Her lips like cherries. 

But if ye saw that which no eye can see— 

The inward beauty of her lively sprite, 

Garnished with heavenly gifts of high degree— 

Much more then would you wonder at the sight! 

There dwells sweet Love and constant Chastity, 

Unspotted Faith and comely Womanhood, 

Regard of honor and mild modesty ; 

There Virtue reigns as queen in regal throne, 

And giveth laws alone. 

Drayton, a poet of the same period, gives us this charming 
picture of a woman’s hand: 

So white, so soft, so delicate, so sleek— 

As she had worn a lily for a glove I 

Shakspeare’s women impress us with their beauty without 
details. We see Imogen as the “ fresh lily ” he calls her- 
Desdemona as “ one entire and perfect chrysolite;” Perdita’s 
loveliness, as “ the prettiest Lowland lass that treads the 
greensward,” is present to us; and Juliet’s beauty, which 
“ teaches the torches to burn bright,” steals into our mind 
with a glow of southern loveliness. Milton’s Eve is a won¬ 
derful picture of stately beauty: 

Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eyes_ 

In every gesture dignity and love. 

Here, too, is a far loftier ideal than the Greek. 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


13 


Our modern poets, too, have given us charming ideas of 
beauty. Byron’s description of Zuleika is, perhaps, one of 
the finest, and is well known. 

Keats gives us a picture of Diana, not, we think, inferior 
to the Greek sketch of beauty: 

Speak, stubborn earth, and tell me where, oh where 
Hast thou a symbol of her golden hair ? 

Not oat-sheaves drooping in the western sun ; 

* * * * Yet she had, 

Indeed, locks bright enough to make me mad— 

i And they were gordianed up and braided, 

Leaving, in naked comeliness, unshaded, 

Her pearl-round ears, white neck, and orbed brow ; 

The which were blended in I know not how 
With such a paradise of lips and eyes, 

Blush-tinted cheeks, half-smiles, and faintest sighs. 

That when I think thereon, my spirit clings 
And plays about its lancy, till the stings 
Of human neighborhood envenom all. 

* * * Ah ! see her hovering feet, 

More bluely veined, more so t, more whi'ely sweet, 

Than those of sea-born Venus when she rose 
From out her cradle shell. 

Then we have the charming picture of Nourmahal, in 
Moore, which should never be omitted when we talk of the 
poets’ ideal of beauty: 

There’s a beauty for ever unchangingly bright, 

Like the long sunny lapse of a summer day’s light; 

Shining on, shining on, by no shadow made tender, 

Till Love falls asleep in its sameness of splendor. 

This was not the beauty—oh ! nothing like this 
That to young Nourmahal gave such magic of bliss ; 

But that loveline s ever in motion, which plays 
Like the light upon autumn’s soft shadowy days— 

Now here, and now there, giving warmth as it flies 
From the lips to the cheek, from the cheek to the eyes. 

It is upon these word-pictures that we have formed our 
ideas of beauty, and gathered fair visions of female loveliness, 
whose presence enlivens and adorns the world of which it is 
one of the joys and blessings. 

The painters and sculptors, too, have helped form our 
ideal, and their dicta are taken into account in the following- 
chapters. 


14 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


A just sense of the beautiful, a rational love of it, an inno¬ 
cent desire to cultivate and preserve this good gift of God, 
can not do otherwise than benefit those whose dowry it is 
from Heaven; and who have no right to despise or neglect 
it; or to tamper with and destroy it by absurd artifices, 
which would meet with the unqualified contempt they de¬ 
serve if women had better knowledge on the subject— a 
knowledge which it is the aim of this work to give. 


CHAPTER II. 

BEAUTY OF FORM-WHAT WE OWE TO IT-BEAUTY IN THE 

PRESENT DAY A NATIONAL POSSESSION-DUTY OF PRE¬ 
SERVING GOOD LOOKS-THE FIGURE-SHOULDERS-WAIST 

-FEET-WALK-METHODS OF IMPROVING THE FIGURE AND 

WALK-EXERCISE AND DIET. 

It was undoubtedly to the beauty of Saxon children that 
Britain owed her Christianity. “ Hot Angles, but angels!” 
cried St. Gregory, as he gazed on the golden-haired Anglo- 
Saxons, in the slave-market of Rome. And assuredly up to 
the present day this good gift has not failed the great race. 
Ho men superior to the stalwart sons of Britain and America 
—the modern Greek, Roman and Saxon combined in one; 
no maidens are so fair; while in no country is beauty more 
lasting, or its types so varied as in the “ land of the free and 
the home of the brave.” A real ugly native-born American 
girl is an anomaly; but of all women in the wide world 
American women do leant to improve or preserve their beauty. 
Our women of society follow fashion, how r ever absurd, in a 
blind aimless way, being content to do as every one else does, 
and having but very hazy notions of wdiat true beauty is. 
They will pinch in their feet and waists, paint their faces, 
dye their hair; but, as to any real knowledge of how really 
to improve the precious gift committed to their trust, they are 
singularly ignorant and indifferent. 

The perception of beauty we are well aware is not a dis- 



THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


15 


tinct faculty; it is a matter of opinion and feeling, con- 
trolled and directed by national prejudices, early impressions, 
education, and a cultivated and refined taste. 

Who hath not proved how feebly words essay 

To fix one spark ol Beauty’s heavenly ray ? 

In actual life, women wlio possess wliat is called “charm ” 
have generally been the beauties of their period—not those 
who are the nearest embodiment of the sculptor’s ideal. It is 
more than probable that ’Cleopatra’s fascination lay rather 
in her “ strong toil of grace” and her “ infinite variety” 
than in her features and complexion; and the portraits of 
Queen Mary of Scotland, Joanna of Naples, and of the 
beauties of Napoleon’s Court do not strike us as possessing 
anything extraordinary in point of features. These women 
simply charmed people, and were thus declared to be beauti¬ 
ful without being possessed of any or many of its extrinsic 
attributes. 

There is a certain artistic rule of personal beauty grown 
out of the taste of painters and poets, which may guide us 
to that which is as near an approach to real beauty as mere 
form can be; always premising that the indefinable charm 
of beauty will not be found in the perfection of form or 
feature in the absence of the informing mind, which Plato 
has declared to be alone beautiful. 

The light of love, the purity of grace, 

The mind, the music breathing from her face; 

The hesirt whose softness harmonized the whole, 

as Byron exquisitely describes his “ Zuleika.” 

But, though we may fully acknowledge Plato’s doctrine, 
that, in perceiving beauty the mind only contemplates the shadow 
of its owrt affections , still, a near external approach to those 
forms which taste lias definitely settled as beautiful, is 
equally desirable and to be sought for. We believe few of 
our readers are aware in what a high degree this approach 
may be facilitated by care and attention. All the gifts in¬ 
trusted to us by nature demand our best care—and, to wo¬ 
man especially, beauty is a gift of vast moment, for in it lies 
much in her power for good or evil. 

It is one of her unwritten but imperative needs to look as 


16 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


well as she can; for beauty enlisted on the side of goodness, 
is one of its most potent arms against evil. 

To specialize: the figure is really of more importance 
than the face, because it belongs to that “ strong toil of grace ” 
of which we have already spoken. 

“ The beauty of the female figure,” says Leigh Hunt, 
“ consists in being gently serpentine .” Stiffness is utterly un¬ 
graceful. 

The movements of an unconscious child are the perfection 
of grace; they are easy, unstudied*natural. 

The throat should be round, full, and pillar-like. Chaucer 
describing—it is believed—the beautiful Blanche of Lancas¬ 
ter, says: 

Her throte, as! have now memoire, 

Seemed as a round tower of yvoire (ivory,) 

Of good greteness and not loo grete 

The waist should be twice the size of this “ tower of 
ivory,” not , as fashion has too-often made it, nearly the same 
size. 

The shoulders should be falling, and not too broad (very 
broad shoulders being a type of masculine beauty); but they 
had better be broad than too narrow, as any contraction 
across the chest gives a mean and pinched look to the per¬ 
son. The figure should be easy; too small a waist is an 
actual deformity, and we may remind young ladies who 
labor under the delusion of thinking that a waist of eighteen 
inches is “ lovely,” that that of the Venus de Medici, the 
acknowledged type of female beauty, measures twenty-seven 
inches. 

When these deformed waists are made by tight lacing, 
they not only mar the correct proportions of the figure, 
but by contrast injure the other parts and proportions of the 
figure; while tight ligatures anywhere about the person are 
.apt, by impeding the circulation, to blotch the face and 
paint the nose, by no means charmingly, and to thicken the 
ankles; not to speak of the injury to the health, and, through 
that, to the general complexion. 

The hips should be high in a woman, and wide; the feet 
small, but in due proportion to the liight of the figure. A 
high instep is beautiful, and a hollowing in the sole is con- 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


17 


sidered by the Arabs a mark of high birth; but the foot 
should not be made so small as to mar the perfect graceful¬ 
ness of the walk. 

Ariosto describes a beautiful foot as “ breve, asciutto , e 
ritondetto that is, “short, neat, and a little rounded,” i. e., 
not thin. The Chinese have made a deformity of a beauty 
by exaggerating it, and one shudders at what their wo¬ 
men underwent in ancient times to attain this horrible fash¬ 
ionable disfigurement. But, we are now told that the Chinese 
women are rapidly abandoning their absurd notions of muti¬ 
lating their feet. As a kind of compromise the foot is made 
to appear very short by wearing immensely high heels, which 
show the toe on its point, and by raising the foot nearly 
perpendicularly, diminish its apparent length as much as 
they desire it to be diminished, which produces the same 
crippled, stumbling walk as when their feet were compressed 
in bandages. 

The fashion of our women of wearing very high heels 
produces, in a degree, the same ungainly effect. Our best 
physicians object to these high heels as injurious to the 
health as 'well as to the gait and personal carriage. 

-Pedes vestis defluxit ad imos 

Et vera inceseu put nit Dea- 

says Virgil—that is, Venus wore a long train, and was 
known by her graceful walk to be a goddess. 

In length of train descends her sweeping gown. 

And by her graceful walk the queen of love is known. 

Dkyden. 

We have long acknowledged the grace and dignity given 
by length of train; it is to be desired that the graceful walk 
were more sought after by our women. To attain it, the 
movement must be made from the hip ,* it will not then 
shake the garments; the waist being si ill, except from that 
gent le, willowy, swaying motion which accompanies the move¬ 
ments of the most graceful figures. 

One of the best modes of attaining a walk from the hip, 
is to practice walking with something poised on the head. 
The graceful Hindoo, girl can bear a pitcher on her head, 
unsupported by the hand, simply because she moves from the 



18 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


hip, instead of from the waist —a mode of walking which the 
necessity of pitcher-carrying probably originally induced. 

Before leaving this subject, we would urge on our lady 
readers the benefit to be derived (both to health and form) 
from simple arm exercise. If, every night before they slept, 
they went through two, which we will indicate, contracted 
chests and high shoulders might be avoided, viz.: 

Exercise I .—Stand with the heels together and the feet 
turned out slightly’". The knees should be tightened so as to 
be effaced, and the weight of the body should be thrown on 
the front part of the foot, not on the heels. Then raise the 
hands side by side, finger-tips upward, in the middle of the 
chest. Pull them with a jerk back to the shoulders, and 
then let the arms fall straight down. 

Exercise II .—-Stand in the same position. Put the tips 
of the fingers to the shoulders; the elbows against the 
sides. Drop the arms strongly, having the palms of the 
hands turned outward. 

This exercise pulls down the shoulders, as the other ex¬ 
pands the chest. These simple gymnastics will be found 
quite sufficient for young ladies solicitous of being graceful. 
They will suffice for forming and preserving the figure. 

People who sit much and are in the habit of bending 
over sedentary employments, lose the elastic grace peculiar to 
those who walk or ride regularly. 

Too great stoutness or thinness is to be avoided—the 
former by vigorous exercise and a careful diet, eschewing 
great quantities of the flesh-forming or fat-creating foods. 
Animal food is less fattening than bread, vegetables, and 
milk; beer and porter are to be avoided by too fat people, 
and claret substituted in their place. 

But, starving for the figure is a folly which brings its 
punishment in a leaden complexion and dull eyes. Plump¬ 
ness, be it remembered, is beautiful; great thinness, or, as 
it is called, scragginess, is ugly; and one thing is certain— 
the compression of the figure, even if too much inclined to 
embonpoint , is a mistake. A pinched in waist will only give 
a too great-exuberance of flesh above and below it, and thus 
reveal itself as false. 

Corsets have been the bane of women. The models for 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


19 . 


sculptors and painters in Italy are never allowed to wear 
corsets, for fear of spoiling the figure. The fact speaks 
volumes in pleading for true beauty which rejects all un¬ 
natural restraints of dress. Happily fashion has introduced 
the short French corset, and our women have escaped, if 
they please, from the iron cages in which their grandmothers 
lived—the high, long, stiff “ stays” which made them stiff, 
straight, and unshapely, and precluded every shadow of 
grace. 

If the future generation Were never- to wear corsets at all,*" 
we might hope for a general improvement in the race, both 
male and female, but this at present seems a consummation 
only to be hoped for, but not near. 

But hope it we shall! for much has been done in the way 
of enlightening our women on this matter—-and a “ slender 
waist ” is no longer esteemed lovely. Sylphs have given way 
to “fine phisiques ” and the exchange is for the better as far 
as both health and beauty go. 

For the too thin ladies we would recommend a generous 
diet, largely composed of the farinaceous elements and of 
milk, sweet butter and sweet fruit; these, with the cultivation 
of cheerfulness and good nature, and plenty of sleep, will be 
sure to make a well rounded figure and plump limbs. Thin¬ 
ness of ilesh is of an easier nature to redeem by art, than a 
too ponderous beauty; while a supple grace will atone for 
even meagreness, and supple grace will come of a full degree 
of health. 

We have spoken much of grace —What is it? Such an 
indescribable thing, that we know not well how to write on 
it with any chance of giving a good idea of it to the naturally 
ungraceful. Negatives may, however, help us. It is not 
graceful to walk with the defiant stamp peculiar to the too 
independent girl, who, though she may be “ a very good 
catch,” loses a great portion of her “ toil of grace” when she 
abandons 

Fear and niceness, 

The handmaids of all women, or more truly, 

Woman its pretty self—S hakbpeare. 

Nor is it graceful to square the elbows as in driving a pair 
of horses, or to move with sharp jerky movements. To be 


20 


THE BOOK OP BEAUTY. 


graceful a woman should not be habitually hurried and in a 
fuss; she should take time to move, and care (at first) in mak¬ 
ing all movements quietly. By degrees it will become hab¬ 
itual to be graceful. 

But the greatest foe of grace is self-consciousness. This 
alone will spoil both it and beauty. Byron’s heroine “ who 
never thought about herself at all,” was doubtless as graceful 
as Cleopatra. A woman who puts her individual self aside 
altogether, can not fail of attaining a certain sort of grace, 
because she will be perfectly at her ease. 

Frenchwomen are more graceful than Englishwomen, be¬ 
cause they are less self-conscious. A Frenchwoman unexpect¬ 
edly brought into the presence of strangers, in an old or 
otherwise unfitting dress, will directly forget it, in entertain¬ 
ing her guests, and by the charm of her own ease will make 
her bad dress pass unobserved. An English or an American 
woman is only too often painfully conscious of every defect 
of toilette, and becomes awkward because she can not forget 
herself. 

The half-vain half-modest self-consciousness of former days 
caused affectation; in the present day it has a less baneful 
effect, but it produces either awkwardness and a blunt un¬ 
graceful manner, or that defiant and enforced indifference 
which always makes an unpleasant impression. 


CHAPTER III. 

FORM AND COLOR-THE BEAUTY OP THE ARM-OUTLINE- 

COLOR-MOVEMENTS-THE HAND-SHAPE-COLOR-NAILS 

-TO WHITEN THE HANDS-RED HANDS-CAUSE AND CURE 

-EXPRESSION OP THE HAND-MANIPULATIONS-RINGS. 

The arm should have a round and flowing outline, with 
no sharpness of the elbows; it should taper gently down to 
a small wrist. Thin arms are ugly, and require graceful 
movements to make us forget their sharpness. A white arm 
is beautiful, but a dark-complexioned arm may be more 



THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


21 


beautiful if it is better shaped, form being the chief loveli¬ 
ness of the arm. 

The movements of the arm give either awkwardness or 
grace to the person. They should never be sharp or angu¬ 
lar, but rounded, without affectation. Carrying the elbows 
away from the sides in a sharp angle is very ungraceful; and 
the habit (unknowm to our grandmothers) of crossing the 
arms on the chest when sitting, a la Napoleon’s pictures, or 
putting the hands in the jacket pockets, alike detract from 
feminine grace 

ff The hand should be long and delicate, yet plump, with 
taper fingers, the tips of which, when the hand rests on its 
palm, should turn back a little. There is scarcely any 
charm of beauty which surpasses that of a beautiful hand. 
Whiteness is essential to it, but the finger-nails ought to have 
a rosy tinge, and also the palm of the hand. 

Our readers will perceive at once that the beauty of a 
well-formed hand will depend for the loveliness of com¬ 
plexion on the circulation . Imperfect circulation gives the 
blue tinge we see on some hands in winter, or the red look, 
which is equally objectionable. 

Perfect health, necessary for the complexion, is of course 
essential to the hand. A sickly-looking hand, however 
white, may move tenderness and pity, but is not beautiful. 

The nails will often mar or make the beauty of a hand. 
They should be kept perfectly clean. Every morning, after 
washing the hands, the skin which grows up from the bot¬ 
tom and round the side of the nail should be pressed back 
with the towel or with a little ivory instrument sold for the 
purpose; but the nail must never be scraped, as scraping 
produces wrinkles on it—those lines down the nail that mar 
its beauty. 

Before cutting them, the nails should be held in very 
warm water, to make them soft and flexible; then they 
should be cut in the form of a lialf-moon for the hands, and 
square (nearly) for the feet. 

To keep or render the hands white, they should occa¬ 
sionally (after a good washing with glycerine soap) be rub¬ 
bed with lemon-juice and water. 

Red hands are caused by want of proper circulation, and 


22 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


are peculiar to the debatable age between youth and woman¬ 
hood. Constant exercise, electricity, and warm gloves, and 
keeping the wrist covered, are the best means of restoring 
their color. Whenever the hands are inclined to become 
red, warm milk and water should be used to them at night 
before going to bed. 

The hands should never be suffered to remain long soiled 
with anything that will stain them. After gardening, draw¬ 
ing in chalk, etc., they should be washed at once in soft 
warm water, and, if stained, pumice-stone should be used. 
But unless there is some reason for it, it is better not to 
wash the hands very often. They should be dried with a 
soft towel and powdered with violet powder. 

In winter the hands should be washed with oatmeal and 
warm soft water to prevent chapping; or, if chapped, cam¬ 
phor ball and glycerine should be rubbed on at night. 

Chilblains on the hands are to be carefully guarded 
against, as they always leave disfiguring protuberances on 
the finger-joints. Very young girls, or persons who take 
little exercise, are subject to them from want of circulation. 
They must be most carefully guarded against, by never 
holding very cold hands to the fire to warm; and next, by 
never omitting daily exercise. 

The hands should be well dried and strongly rubbed after 
washing, and covered from the outdoor cold. 

When chilblains appear, the following wash is recom¬ 
mended: 

Two ounces of sal ammoniac to be placed in one quart of 
ram-water; put it on the fire and let it boil till the sal am¬ 
moniac is dissolved. It must be rain-water, and not applied 
near the fire, but rubbed on the chilblains twice or thrice a day. 

Should the chilblain break, it may be dressed twice daily 
with a plaster made of the following ointment: One ounce 
of hog’s lard, one ounce of beeswax, and half an ounce of 
oil of turpentine; melt these and mix them thoroughly, 
spread on leather, and apply immediately. 

Sunburn ought not to exist on the hands, as even when 
gardening they may be kept covered with old gloves; but if 
the hands chance to get browned, lemon-juice should be 
used to remove the tan. 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


23 


For freckles (which are a great blemish on the hands and 
arms, and give a common look) make and apply the follow¬ 
ing mixture: Lemon-juice, one ounce; powdered borax, one 
quarter of a drachm; sugar, half a drachm. Keep it in a 
glass bottle for a few days, and apply occasionally. 

Pumice-stone will remove stains of fruit and ink. 

Warts may be removed by tying a piece of raw beef, 
soaked for twenty-four hours previously in vinegar, over 
them. In a week, if it is worn constantly, and in a fort¬ 
night, if it is worn only at night, the wart will disappear 
and leave no scar on the flesh. Warts from fhe face may 
be removed in the same way, by fastening the vinegar-soaked 
meat on by strips of sticking plaster. 

Old gloves with the tips cut off are serviceable in preserv¬ 
ing the hands white, and do not mar their usefulness. 

The hand should look able to move swiftly and skillfully. 
There is much expression in it. A lymphatic, lazy hand is 
easily distinguished from the hand of the artist or musician. 
Good manipulations impart character and grace to it. 

Rings, when elegant, embellish the hand, and are perhaps 
the most graceful ornament of the young, but too many of 
them cripple and disfigure the fingers. Large rings, al¬ 
though at times “ fashionable,” are of very questionable 
taste, on a woman’s hand. Two or three rich plain circlets 
or pure settings are far better than a half-dozen cheap and 
“flashy” adornments. 


CHAPTER IY. 

THE HEAD AND HAIR-SHAPE OF THE HEAD-BREADTH-- 

DEPTH-POSE ON THE SHOULDERS-HAIR-COLORS-QUAN¬ 
TUM-GRAY HAIR-DYEING AND ITS EFFECTS-STRENGTH¬ 
ENING THE HAIR-MODES OF DRESSING IT. 

The shape of the head is beautiful in proportion as it 
inclines from round into oval. Its size should be an eighth 
part of the hight of the whole figure. The larger the facial 
angle the more intellectual the head is supposed to be. 



24 


THE BOOK OP BEAUTY. 


The facial angle is an angle which results from union of 
two lines, one of which touches the forehead, the other of 
which, drawn from the orifice of the ear, meets the former 
line at the extremity of the front teeth. In the Greek sta¬ 
tues it is an angle of ninety degrees. 

The chief breadth of the head should he at the temples 
and over the ears. It should be gracefully poised on the 
body. 

“ Beauty draws us with a single hair,” 
is scarcely a poetical exaggeration; and the fashion of dress¬ 
ing and adorning the hair has always been important— 
even in King Solomon’s days, whose boy pages, we are told 
by Josephus, wore gold-dust powdered on their jetty locks! 

Hair should be abundant, soft, long, and fine. Of late 
years the favorite hue of the ancients and of the poets of the 
fifteenth century, golden or auburn, has resumed its former 
sway (with the revival of that sense of color so long dor¬ 
mant among us); and every shade of red has flaunted itself 
before us, till the dark-haired beauties have been tempted to 
imitate it by dyes, to the great detriment of their appearance, 
as the harmony between the color of the down on the cheek 
and the hair is thus destroyed, and also the gloss and life of 
the hair. No dye can give the 

“ Gold upon a crown of jet,” 
of which Ben Jonson sung. 

“Hair like wheat,” the “ honey-colored hair” of Homer, 
is the most affected of late among us. “ Brown in shadow, 
gold in sun,” is a beautiful shade, but Elizabeth’s bright red 
hair, “ capellid’ or,” as she called it, was inspiration to sy¬ 
cophant pens in her time, and even lovely Mary of Scots 
sacrificed her beautiful dark locks to the “red fronts.” 
Cleopatra, Lady Macbeth, and the much-maligned, beautiful 
and noble Lucretia Borgia had hair light and golden. 

Black and rich brown hair—the one with the purple light 
of a raven’s wing on it, the other burnished as with gold, 
will always hold their own against light or red hair, and are 
beautiful, whatever may be the fashion. They are remark¬ 
able also for possessing a faint perfume occasionally, as if 
scented, and are always in tliii way pleasanter than fair 
hair. 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


25 


We may be sure, whatever color the hair may be, that it is 
the one precisely best suited to the complexion and eyes 
with which we find it. Nature is a cunning painter, and 
well understands the harmony of coloring. When we dye, 
we disfigure both our hair and our complexion. 

Dyeing the hair, by-the-by, has been practiced in nearly 
all ages. In the sixteenth century the Venetian ladies had a 
singular fashion of dyeing it in locks of various colors, all 
worn at the same time, and which, floating over their shoul-§ 
ders, from their crownless hats, must have had a very 
strange appearance. It was at this time that their chopines, 
the precursors of our ladies’ high-heeled boots, rendered 
them unable to walk without assistance.* 

The hair thus dyed must have had an unpleasant effect on 
the complexion, for, as we have said, there is on the skin a 
soft down—occasionally visible on lovely brunette skins— 
which would be a horrid contrast to the hair of many colors. 

This down changes with the hair, and becomes whiter as 
the hair silvers. It is this which gives such a hard, even 
fierce, look to the countenance wiien false black hair or dyed 
Mack hair is substituted for gray. 

When dye is used (but it is always a mistake, and often a 
dangerous one) it should be light in color, to prevent this 
harsh contrast with the skin. But there is not such a thing 
as an innox ous dye for the hair, if we except the two vege¬ 
table ones—walnut-juice, and mullein and genista The 
former dyes the hair, but also blackens and stains the skin, 
which show T s the stain at the partings. Mullein and genista 
are the best. The receipt is half an ounce of the flowers of 
mullein and half an ounce of genista, stew^ed in water till 
the liquor is quite black. To be applied daily with a 
sponge, w r hen the result will be achieved. For premature 
gray hair, this vegetable dye has been found useful. 

Gray hair, the glory of old age, is apt in the present day 
to arrive before befitting years, and then an innoxious dye is 
not so objectionable. 

* A Venetian beauty, wearing the rim only of a broad hat, her hair of 
many hues streaming from the place where the crown ought to be, 1 ' and 
only able to walk upon her st ; lt-like -choptries by loaning on two atten¬ 
dants, must have been a very picture ci the utter foolishness to which 
fashion may descend. 


26 


THE BOOK OP BEAUTY. 


We would warn our fair readers against pulling out gray 
liairs. It is quite possible that improved health may restore 
their color—we have known frequent instances of this; hut if 
not, the soft gray hair which has never been uprooted (or 
broken off under the delusion of uprooting it) will always 
lie hidden among the hair; while the gray hairs which grow 
again after being pulled out are stiff, short, and have a habit 
of standing erect! Never pull out a gray hair ! 

But prevention is better than cure. How are ladies to 
preserve the color and abundance of their tresses? We be¬ 
lieve that the best and most important rule for so doing is 
to keep the head cool and clean. But the former is nearly 
an impossibility in these days of frizettes and false hair. 
One thing, however, is certain. If our ladies would pre¬ 
serve their own abundant tresses for another (and probably 
widely different) fashion, they must get the head cool during 
the night and before dressing the hair the next morning. 
To effect this, the hair must be taken down and well brushed 
at night with a soft brush, parting it about, to cool and clean 
it; and then it should be plaited and suffered to hang about 
the shoulders all night. In the morning the roots should be 
well washed with rose water, or cold soft {or rain ) water , if 
possible—the latter is best. Then it must, be dried, before 
it is dressed, by rubbing gently and shaking out, or brushing 
with a soft brush. 

This treatment will remove scurf, which is, we believe, 
one of the causes of premature graj r hair, and which un¬ 
doubtedly weakens the roots of the hair, and prevents it 
from growing, besides being l orribly unsightly. When, af¬ 
ter washing carefully, the scurf is found nearly as bad as 
ever, a lotion, must be used, of one ounce of glycerine in 
eight ounces of rose-water; this will render the skin soft and 
clean, and improve the hair. Even in cases of skin disease 
in the head, this lotion will be found efficacious. 

Brushing should be performed carefully. Where it is 
possible the hair should be brushed by another person; but 
as all our readers cannot have ladies’ maids, we advise them 
to divide the hair at the back of the head and brush it from 
each side gently. If entangled, it should be freed from 
kndts by beginning a little way up from the e ids of the hair 


TELE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


27 


and gradually brushing from above, care being taken not to 
break the hair, which should be brushed for twent} T minutes, 
night and morning. 

The abundant false hair used in the present day, and 
which may be tolerated because it is openly worn and makes 
no attempt at deception—“what she spends or lias spent on 
her hair ” being frankly discussed by our maidens among 
themselves—requires great care and attention on the part of 
the owner or her maid to keep clean and fresh. fc 

Large skeins of hair, which can be cleaned and dressed 
often, are greatly to be preferred to the chignons made up 
in rolls, etc., originally sold. The niceness and cleanliness 
of these coils are absolutely essential to their adding beauty 
to the wearer, as in no case is the proverb, “ Cleanliness is 
next to gOodliness,” ( i. e. beauty) more true than in all mat¬ 
ters respecting the hair—dirty false or natural hair being 
equally detestable. 

But, as before said, fashions change; false hair may go 
out of fashion in a few years’ time, and then the ladies who 
have preserved their own hair in any quantity will have 
cause to rejoice. Now everybody knows how prone the hair 
is to fall of, especially under its modern assimilation with 
borrowed tresses. 

When it gets thin and meager, what is best to be done to 
renew its growth? 

The ends should be well cut, frequently , and a stimulating 
lotion used to help the hair-follicle to secretion. Stimulants 
and cutting are the only remedy. 

The best stimulating washes we know are made thus: 
One ounce of spirit of turpentine, one ounce of trotter oil, 
thirty drops of acetic solution of cantliarides. 

Another good wash to make the hair grow is: Camphor, 
one drachm; borax, one ditto; spirits of wine, two teaspoon¬ 
fuls; tincture of cantharides, two teaspoonfuls; rosemary 
oil, four drops; rose-water, half a pint. Dissolve the cam¬ 
phor and borax in the spirit, add the oil, and lastly shake it 
up gradually with the rose-water. 

~The somewhat noted Wilson receipt for strengthening the 
hair and preventing its falling off is as follows: Vinegar of 
cantharides, half an ounce; eau de Cologne, one ounce; 


28 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


rose-water, one ounce. The scalp should be brushed briskly 
until it becomes red, and the lotion should then be applied 
to the roots of the hair twice a day. 

Of ordinary washes there are many useful ones; one of 
the very nicest is made of box and rosemary-leaves, each one 
handful, boiled in a quart of water till it becomes a pint. 
Strain, and when cold add half a gill of rum. Pour into 
bottles and cork them down. This wash will keep for a 
long time, and is remarkably clean and nice to use. 

Glycerine, half an ounce; spirit of rosemary, half an 
ounce; water, five ounces; to be well mixed and shaken; to 
be used daily—is also to be recommended. 

A late writer recommends a decoction of strong green tea, 
stewed till it is nearly the color of coffee, as a marvelous 
wash for the hair, promoting its growth and improving it 
generally. Our only doubt about this is its power of dye¬ 
ing, which is great. We have often tinted our drawing- 
paper with a decoction of green tea, and it is used also for 
washing black lace, the color of which it restores. It may 
give a (temporary) green tinge to the hair, but this doubtless 
would soon pass away. 

With regard to the mode of wearing the hair, so much 
depends on fashion that no directions can be given. 

It is a fact that whatever is fashionable becomes pleasing 
to the eye—probably from association. But in the present 
day individual taste is permitted to modify and adapt fashion 
in a great degree, and it is in this that good taste is dis¬ 
played. The present mode has a certain style about it, and 
we think the hair rolled off the forehead and worn high is 
peculiarly becoming to short round faces and low foreheads. 

The mode of wearing the hair should he studied by each indi¬ 
vidual, and the fashion modified to that which is most be¬ 
coming to the wearer. 

Of recipes which are desirable we may give the follow¬ 
ing: 

French Pomatum. —Lard, four ounces; honey, four ounces; 
the best olive oil, two ounces. Melt the above together, and 
let it stand till cold, when the honey will sink to the bottom; 
then melt it once again without the honey. Scent it with a 
quarter of an ounce of essence of bitter almonds; put in with 


THE BOOK OP BEAUTY. 


29 


the liquid after the second melting, essence of jessamine, or 
otto of roses. 

Pomade for the Hair .—Beef marrow, four ounces; lard, 
two ounces; salad oil, three table-spoonfuls; some good 
scent. Clarify the beef marrow, and let it stand until cold. 
Clarify the lard, and when cold beat it to a cream and add 
it to the marrow. Put both into a saucepan, and let it boil 
until well mixed, stirring it constantly. Then add the oil 
and any scent you prefer. Pour it into pots or glass bottles, 
and it will be fit for use. 

Soft Pomatum.—Take two pounds of hog’s lard, boil and 
skim it well, put into it a small quantity of hair powder. 
When it is cool scent it with essence of lemon and berga¬ 
mot. 

Hair-Curling Fluid .—The only curling fluid of any service 
is a weak solution of isinglass, which w r ill hold the curl in 
the position in which it is placed, if care is taken that it 
follows the direction in which the hair naturally falls. 

One of the fluids in use is made by dissolving a small 
portion of beesw r ax in an ounce of olive oil, and adding 
scent according to taste. 

Bandoline. —1. Simmer an ounce of quince-seed in a 
quart of water for forty minutes; strain, cool, add a few 
drops of scent, and bottle, corking tightly. 

2. Take of gum tragacanth one and a half drachm; water, 
half a pint; rectified spirits mixed with an equal quantity of 
water, three ounces; and a little scent. Let the mixture 
stand for a day or two, then strain. 

8. It may be made of Iceland moss, a quarter of an ounce 
boiled in a quart of water, and a little rectified spirits added, 
so that it may keep. 


so 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


CHAPTER V. 

THE UPPER PART OF THE FACE-THE FOREHEAD-EYES- 

EYELIDS-EYEBROWS. 

The forehead should be straight, compact, and not too 
high. 

“A forehead,” says Junius, “should he smooth, even, 
white, delicate, short, and of an open and cheerful character.” 
“ Di terso avorio era la froute lieta ,” says Ariosto (“ Of terse 
ivory was the joyous brow”); a brow, that is, smooth and 
not disfigured by frowns, which speedily leave their indelible 
marks on it. Care should be taken in youth, not to make 
straight long lines on the forehead by the habit of lifting the 
eyebrows—a senseless trick, which gives the countenance 
quite early an appearance of age. The forehead will occa¬ 
sionally grow rough from exposure in boats or on horseback. 
It should then be lightly brushed over with some fine olive 
oil, but cold cream and every animal grease should never be 
applied to the human skin. 

For a low forehead the hair should be worn rolled up off 
it. When it grows low in front and high at the sides, the 
present fashion will be found very becoming, as the bight on 
the temples will show. Care should be taken not needlessly 
to tan the forehead. 

A very high round forehead requires the hair to be \ 
lower over it than a low broad one. 

The eyes are, perhaps, the greatest personal beauty. Ti. 
soul looks out of them. All colors may be beautiful. Black 
eyes are supposed to be most intellectual; blue eyes the most 
soft and tender; gray eyes are capable of wonderful expres¬ 
sion; and there is a hazel eye ’with a tinge of green in it, 
which is singularly handsome. Hazel eyes, matching with 
chestnut hair, are beautiful, and have the same velvety look 
which is so exquisite in black Oriental eyes. 

“ Black eyes,” says Leigh Hunt, “ are thought the bright¬ 
est; blue the most feminine; gray the keenest. It depends 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


31 


entirely on the spirit within. We have seen all these colors 
change characters; though we must own that when a blue eye 
looks ungentle, it seems more out of character than the ex¬ 
tremist contradiction expressed by the others.” 

Then there is a purple-blue eye, resembling the leaf of a 
pansy, which is very beautiful. 

The Greeks admired large eyes—“Ox eyed” is an epithet 
applied by Homer to Juno—and large eyes are very beautiful 
when they are not too prominent, and have enough expres¬ 
sion. The almond-shaped long eye is very handsome, and 
so is that finely-shaped orbit we see on Greek statues. It is 
both handsome and intellectual, and very much opposed to 
the narrow slits running upward, which form the orbit of the 
Chinese and Tartar eyes. 

But, after all, the eye derives its chief beauty from expres¬ 
sion, and, whether brilliant velvety black, or hazel, or violet, 
or heavenly blue, is still merely bead-like, if it does not ex¬ 
press the informing soul of intelligence and love. The more 
intellectual and the kinder a woman is, the more lovely her 
eyes must inevitably grow. 

Eyes affectionate and glad, 

That seem to love whnte’er they look on.—C ampbell. 

8mall eyes require to be lit up by good nature and fun to 
be beautiful; but, thus lighted, are very charming. 

Happily the eyes can not be subjected to the destroying- 
arts of the toilet, as the complexion and hair are. The 
only possible means of improving, or effecting a fancied im¬ 
provement of, the eyes, is by darkening the edges of the lids 
by kold; and this is so palpable that it can never deceive any 
one, and is therefore useless, when intended .to deceive. 

A bright natural color on the cheek adds to the luster of 
the eyes; but rouge gives them too strong a glare to be beau¬ 
tiful. 

Good health will give luster and clearness to them, and is, 
as in all other respects, essential to beauty. 

The eyes should not be dimmed by reading by firelight or 
twilight, or by reading in bed. Early sleep adds to their 
brilliancy, and the nursery term of “ beauty sleep,” before 
midnight, is the popular acknowledgment of a great truth. 

When the eyes have been tried by the glare of the sea, or 


THE HOOK OF BEAUTY. 


the wind in them, when riding, it is well to bathe them with 
lukewarm rose-water, which is very good for the eyes at ail 
times.* 

The eyes should not be used on first waking for reading 
nor indeed is it well to tax them before breakfast in any way. 
Bathe them well with cold water on rising. Never sit read¬ 
ing or working facing the light; let it fall on your work or 
book from behind you, or from the side. Neither should 
the eyes be tried over minute stitches of needlework, or very 
small print. 

These precautions will both preserve the beauty of the 
eyes and the precious gift of sight. 

Any disease of the eyes should be instantly submitted to 
an experienced oculist. 

We shall only add on the subject of eyes, that the expres¬ 
sion being of so much importance, it is manifest that the 
more highly cultivated the intellect is, and the sweeter and 
happier the temper, the more chance the eyes have of being 
beautiful. A good expression will redeem even small and 
ill-shaped eyes from ugliness, and add a glory and depth to 
larger and more lustrous orbs. 

The eyelashes should be long, dark, and curling upward. 
If cut in infancy they will grow long and thick; but cutting 
them afterward is a fatal experiment, as they never grow long 
again. Large lids, which in a manner unroll over the eyes, 
are thought beautiful—perhaps because they imply large eyes; 
but such lids are very handsome. Care should be taken not 
to rub the eyes so as to injure or rub out the lashes. The 
little gatherings on the edge of the lid, called sties, are very 
injurious to the lashes, and should be guarded against as 
much as possible. They imply, we believe, debility; and a 
doctor’s advice and tonics might prevent them. When they 
exist, the best mode of treating them is to bathe them with 
warm water, or weak poppy-water. The old custom of rub¬ 
bing them with a plain gold ring is not to be despised, as the 
pressure and friction excite the vessels of the lid, and cause 
an absorption of the suffused matter under the eyelash. 

♦Ladies who read Greek, and at the same time care for their personal 
appearance (which we believe they will,) should not try the eves over it 
too long; and after reading, should bathe them with rose-water. 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


*>o 

il'J 


For all inflammations of the eye, we advise our readers at 
once to have recourse to medical advice. 

The eyebrows should be finely marked, slightly arched, 
long and narrow; yet the narrow line should be thickly cov¬ 
ered, so as to be well marked, as if penciled. Too arched 
eyebrows give a silly look to the face. 

Upou her eyelids many graces sat 
Under the shadow of her even brows, 
says Spenser. Shakspeare thought a certain squareness of 
the brow beautiful. Describing a beautiful woman, he 
makes Pericles say, 

My qua n's square brows , 

Her stature to n inch, s wand-like str aght 
As silver voiced—her ey s as jewel-like, 

And cased as richly ; 

i. e., set in beautiful, well-fringed orbits. 

It is quite allowable'to improve the growth of the eye¬ 
brows; and it is quite possible to do so, by simply brushing 
them at night with a camel’s-hair brush dipped in cocoa-uni 
oil. Every time the face is washed, the eyebrows should be 
very gently pressed into a curve by the thumb and finger. 

Painting the e} r ebrows will make the skin rough and rub- 
bly, and cause them, after a time, to fall off. 


CHAPTER VI. 

THE LOWER PART OF THE FACE-THE EARS—EAR-RINGS- 

JAW-CHEEKS-NOSE-THE MOUTH-ITS EXPRESSION- 

CAUSES OF ITS SHAPE-COLOR OF THE LIPS-THEIR SHAPE 

-THE TEETH-HOW TO PRESERVE THEM-THE CHIN. 

Beautiful ears are small, delicate, and compact, of a shell¬ 
like shape, and are thought indicative of high birth. It hgs 
been observed that musicians have frequently well-formed 
and small ears. 

Ear-rings are the only mode of ornamentation adopted for 
the ear, and most of our poets have condemned their use; it 



THE HOOK OF BEAUTY 


54 

Pfiems, in truth, a remainder of barbarism to make holes in 
the flesh, That the ear is actually disfigured by heavy drops 
rve think none of our ladies will deny. Sir Philip Sidney 
says on this subject: 

The tip no jewel needs to wear: 

The tip is j wel of the ear. 

And, however elegant they may be as ornaments, we are in¬ 
clined to be of his opinion about ear-rings, thinking the tip 
the prettier when it has never been pierced and pulled down¬ 
ward by heavy drops. When ear-rings are worn, they should 
not be so heavy as to distort the ear itself. 

The jaw should be small and delicate. A large angular 
jaw gives a woman a masculine appearance: it has a hard, 
domineering look. In a man it expresses resolution and per¬ 
severance, and has a beauty of its own. 

The cheek possesses great beauty, especially in the tran¬ 
sition from the lower part to the neck. Dimpled cheeks have 
the.charm of youth. Of their color we shall speak when we 
treat of the complexion. 

The nose has generally, in our nation, the least claim to 
beauty. Mr. Disraeli lias made Sidonia call us “flatnosed 
Franks,” with some justice. The straight nose is the best 
shape—firmly cut, and yet delicate; the Greek nose is 
especially pretty in women; the Roman, or aquiline, a little 
too hard looking for female beauty, but still it is handsome. 
A little turned-up nose is piquant , arch, and pretty. Ordin¬ 
ary noses are not of themselves beautiful, and yet if we could 
replace one which is of itself not pretty by a finely-cut one, 
we should probably spoil the face, as the adaptation of the 
nose to the other features is the chief thing. It is a feature 
for whose benefit we can do nothing, but must perforce be 
compelled to accept it as it is. We may add that it is a 
more important feature in a man’s face than a woman’s. 
Great dignity belongs to the male aquiline nose, which has 
been possessed by most conquerors and great warriors. 

The most common nose amongst young English dam¬ 
sels is the retrousse. It can not compete with the Greek or 
aquiline nose, but it has a special charm of its own. La 
Fontaine, describing a beautiful princess, says: 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


35 


An amiable and brilliant Princess, 

With small white foot and long brown tresses, 

And little turned-up nose , her greatest charm. 

The mouth has been ranked next in beauty to the eyes. 
We are inclined to believe that its charm is even greater; for 
its expression is more potent, for pleasing or displeasing, than 
that of any other feature. The rule—often beautifully varied— 
is that the width of the mouth should just equal the breadth of 
the nostrils, that the lips should not make sharp angles, but keep 
a certain breadth to the end, and show the red to the last. 
When, however, the nose is pinched in, or very narrow, it is 
desirable that the mouth should be much wider. A large 
mouth is handsomer than one that is too small and pinched. 
A pursed-up mouth is. expressive of narrowness and conceit. 

The lips should be plump and full, according to the hack¬ 
neyed but still perfect picture drawn by Sir John Suckling 
of the “Bride:” 

Her lips were red, and one was thin— 

Compared with that was next her chin. 

Some bee had stung it newly. 

Very thin lips are ugly, because they express meanness and 
bad temper. Chaucer says of the lips, 

Lippes, thick to kiss percase; 

For lippes thin, not fat, but ever lean, 

They s rve lor naught, they be not worth a bean. 

The lips and mouth are so much affected by the habitual 
temper, that naturally thin lips will grow full and less con¬ 
tracted by the simple indulgence of frank and kindly feel¬ 
ings. Good humor will always make a charming mouth. 
Ill temper causes the corners of the lips to drop downward, 
and gives them the expression of that feeling. Good temper 
ind smiles curl the lips upward. 

The mouth cannot practice disguise as the^ eyes can. 
Whatever is our habitual character and temper, it writes it¬ 
self indelibly on the lips. An exquisitely-shaped mouth has 
no charm without expression, and some mouths have little 
or none beyond that of temper. A smiling, handsome mouth 
is beautiful, or it will derive equal beauty from an expression 
of pensive tenderness, pity or sympathy. 

It is moral beauty which makes it beautiful. Without it 
the mouth, peevish, scornful, sensual, simpering, harsh and 


36 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


cruel, is the worst, as it is also the most truthful, feature in 
the face; while the largest and plainest mouth may be made 
pleasant, and even pretty, by kind, sweet smiles and a laugh 
which “ rings from the soul.” The red of the lips should 
be very rosy and brilliant; it can scarcely be too vivid. 

Paint is used, we believe, by some absurd women, on the 
lips—we need scarcely say to their ultimate injury, and al¬ 
ways at the user’s peril. The best way to color the lips is 
to take care of the health, on the goodness of which their 
color entirely depends. The lips are infallible as a test of 
health; though the very vivid, painted-looking red may some¬ 
times be significant of disease in the system. 

Fresh, rosy lips are the reward of not tightening the figure: 
of exercise, early rising, and tempeiate living. Good tem¬ 
per and cheerfulness give them their final charm of smiles 
and sweetness. Our harsh climate, however, tries the lips 
greatly in winter, and lip-salve is then allowable. It should 
be used at night. The following is a good receipt for it:— 
Two ounces of white wax, two ounces of olive oil, a quarter 
of an ounce of spermaceti, ten drops of oil of lavender, one 
ounce of alkanet root. Soak the alkanet for three days in 
the olive oil; then strain the oil, and melt the spermaceti 
and wax in it. When nearly cold, put in the oil of lavender, 
and stir it till quite firmly set.—From “ Walsh’s Domestic 
Economy. ” 

But the finest-shaped mouths and the loveliest lips will be 
spoiled if the teeth be bad. 

Good teeth are the first essential of beauty. Can we im¬ 
agine a beauty with black, decayed teeth? But how are good 
teeth to be obtained?—by dentifrices and brushing? No! 
By simple washing, and a good digestion. 

We cannot too earnestly urge on mothers the necessity of 
attending early to the teeth of their children. We have 
known many cases in which the decay of the first teeth has 
caused the destruction of their more durable successors. 
First teeth, if they decay (as they sometimes do, from the 
infant’s bad health or from difficulty of teething), should be 
soon removed, and not let remain till pushed out by the 
second teeth. 

The cause of so much decay in the teeth nowadays, is 


T1IK BOOK OI'’ BEAUTY. 


37 


said by physicians to be the too great icititenern of our bread. 
Brown bread contains phosphates of wheat, essential for the 
preservation and nourishment—the building up, as it were— 
of the teeth; and this has long been withheld from us in our 
daily bread. The teeth have suffered for it. 

A very learned lawyer with whom we have the honor of 
being acquainted, and who uses his great intellect on ordi¬ 
nary as w r ell as great matters, told us that he found his 
children losing their teeth before they w 7 ere fifteen, and he 
resolved to try what restoring the lost material of the teeth 
would do to save them. The children were not only made 
to eat brown bread (which contains the phosphates), but he 
gave them phosphates of wheat and lime-water, mixed in 
their tea or in water, and at once stopped the decay, as by a 
spell. Any chemist would direct the quantities to be taken 
by an adult. We recommend the trial of this remedy to all 
those whose teeth are giving signs of decay. 

Perfect health—that great secret of beauty—is of course 
the cause of fine teeth. 

The teeth should be of moderate size, even, and of a 
pearly white, with full enamel. Dead, dull white teeth have 
a very painful look. 

Perfect cleanliness is essential to the preservation of the 
teeth. After every meal, whenever it is possible to leave 
the room, the mouth should be washed out, and the food 
removed from between the teeth by a quill toothpick. At 
night the teeth should be cleaned with a very soft brush of 
badger’s hair; the ordinary hard brush scratches and cracks 
the enamel, and so causes decay. The water should be 
lukewarm, but the mouth should be washed out with cold 
Witter afterward, to strengthen the gums. No powder 
should be used but charcoal, which, if used about once or 
twice a w r eek, w 7 ill purify and clean the mouth. A little 
myrrh should occasionally be dropped into the w T ater w 7 ith 
which the gums are rinsed, to harden them. Soft spongy 
gums are apt to cause the teeth to decay at the root. Eau 
de Cologne should never be used for the teeth—it will make 
them brittle. The inside of the teeth should be cleaned as 
carefully as the outside, and the gums should be rubbed also 
but not up or down from the teeth. 


38 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


On the slightest appearance of decay, or a tendency to 
accumulate tartar, or any derangement of the teeth, it is best 
to go at once to a dentist. 

If a dark spot appeal's under the enamel, it is an indica¬ 
tion of what is termed caries : neglect it, and the decay will 
eat it until it reaches the center, and great agony is the sure 
result. But if a dentist sees the tooth at the first stage, re¬ 
moves the decaj^ed part, and plugs the cavity in a proper 
manner, no further mischief will result. 

Tartar is not so easily dealt with, but it requires equally 
early attention. It results from an impaired state of the 
general health, and assumes the form of a yellowish concre¬ 
tion on the teeth and gums. At first, it is possible to keep 
it down by a repeated and vigorous use of the toothbrush, 
which for this purpose must be harder than a badger’s hair 
one; but if a firm, solid mass of tartar accumulates, it is 
necessary to have it chipped off by a dentist. Unfortun¬ 
ately, too, by that time it will probably have begun to 
loosen and destroy the teeth on which it fixes, and is pretty 
certain to have produced one obnoxious effect—that of taint¬ 
ing the breath. 

About toothache, it is only necessary to point out that it 
results from various causes, and that, therefore, it is impos¬ 
sible to give any general remedy for it. It may be occa¬ 
sioned by decay, by inflammation of the membrane covering 
the fang, or the pain may be neuralgic, or there may be 
other causes. 

Where there is inflammation, relief is often gained by ap¬ 
plying camphorated chloroform, to be procured at the che¬ 
mist’s. This has often succeeded when laudanum and simi¬ 
lar applications have entirely failed. 

Neuralgia can only be attacked by means of quinine. It 
often assails those whose teeth are perfectly sound—affecting 
the nerves—and it is always to be distinguished, from the 
fact that the paroxysms of pain occur at regular intervals. 
Quinine is the only effectual remedy. 

The following receipts for tooth-powder have been found 
useful, though charcoal alone is sufficient, and to be pre¬ 
ferred to all others. 

Rye Tooth powder .—Rye contains carbonate of lime, car 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


89 


bonate of magnesia, oxide of iron, manganese, and silica— 
all suitable for application to the teeth. Therefore a fine 
tooth-powder is made by burning rye or rye bread to ashes, 
and grinding it to powder by passing the rolling-pin over it. 
Pass the powder through a sieve, and use. The crumbs of 
a French roll, though not so good, may be treated in the 
same way. 

Camphorated Chalk. —This, favorite tooth-powder is easily 
made. Take a pound of prepared chalk, and with this mix 
two drachms of camphor very finely powdered, and moisten 
with spirits of wine. Thoroughly mix. 

Remedy for Toothache. —Oil of cloves, four drops; chloro¬ 
form, one drachm; eau de Cologne, one drachm; solution of 
acetate of morphia, two drachms; one grain to a drachm. 
Mix for a lotion for cold in the teeth and gums; to be ap¬ 
plied with a camel’s-hair pencil. 

We close our remarks upon the mouth with the following 
charming translation made from Ariosto by Leigh Hunt: 

Next, as between two little vales, appears 
Tbe mouth, where epi'-es and vermilion keep ; 

There lurk the pearls, richer than sultan wears, 

Now casketed, now shown by a sweet lip; 

Thence issue the soft words and courteous prayers, 

Enough to make a churl for sweetness weep; 

And there the smile taketh its rosy rise, 

That opens upon earth a paradise. 

The chin should be round and cushiony, turning a little 
upward, but not too much, or in age it is apt to become nut- 
crackerish by meeting the nose. A sharp, projecting chin 
gives an old look to the face. A retreating chin lias an air 
of silliness, A dimple in the chin is a great beauty. 

Occasionally a sort of soft down like a mustache is seen 
on the upper lip of dark beauties. This is thought hand¬ 
some, and gives great expression to the countenance. 

We have now chatted about the figure and features of 
Beauty; it remains to discuss that all-important subject, the 
Complexion, which we shall reserve for another chapter. 


40 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


CHAPTER VII. 

COMPLEXION-ENGLISH COMPLEXION S-COSMETICS-SCRIPTURE 

NOTICE OF PAINTING THE FACE-DANGER OF WHITE PAINT 

AND ROUGE MILK AS A COSMETIC NATURE OF THE SKIN 

'• EXPLAINED HOW TO PRESERVE IT SOFT WATER EF- 

FF.CTS OF HARD WATER AND SOAP-HOT WATER-COLD 

WATER-ANIMAL GREASE-OIL-VIOLET POWDER-EARLY 

RISING-RECEIPTS. 

The ladies of England have been for centuries famed for 
beauty of complexion. A bad complexion in healthful 
youth is the exception to the rule for English women. And 
yet we have recently read that the use of cosmetics was in¬ 
troduced into modern Europe by the English! Perhaps 
their appreciation of their valuable national gift led them to 
imitation in cases where it was lacking; but the use of 
cosmetics has been common in all ages and in every land. 
Scripture itself records the painting of Jezebel; and Ezekiel 
the prophet speaks of the eye-painting common among the 
women, and Jeremiah of rending the face with painting—a 
most expressive term for the destruction of beauty by such 
means. For the surest destroyers of real beauty are its 
simulators; the usurper destroys the rightful sovereign. 

One thinks with a shudder of horror of Jeremiah’s words, 
When one remembers how one of the beautiful Gunnings, 
whose native complexion was unrivaled, not only destroyed 
it by paint, but actually died at twenty-eight years of age, 
of cancer in the face, caused by her use of pigments. 

That paint can ever deceive people, or really add to beauty 
for more than the duration of an acted charade or a play, 
when <( distance lends enchantment to the view,” is a delu¬ 
sion; but it is one into which women of all times and na¬ 
tions have fallen, from the painted Indian squaw to the 
rouged and powdered denizen of Paris or London. 

Milk was the favorite cosmetic of the ladies of ancient 
Rome. They applied plasters of bread and ass’s milk to 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


41 


their faces at night, and washed them off with milk in the 
morning. Poppcea, the wife of Nero, was wont to bathe in 
ass’s milk. 

As a cosmetic, milk would be harmless; but we doubt 
its power of improving the skin. As a beverage, no doubt 
it whitens the complexion more than any other food. 

But before we speak of improving the complexion, it will 
be well to explain to our readers the nature and properties 
of the skin. 

This is what an American physician—Dr. J. R Nichols 
—has recently told us about it, in his admirable book, 
“ Fireside Science 

“Physiologically considered, it would seem almost impos¬ 
sible to over-estima'e the importance of its functions. Con¬ 
sider for a moment the complex apparatus by which these 
functions are carried on, and the enormous amount of work 
accomplished through it. If the reader will examine his 
hand with a simple jeweler’s lens, or with any of the cheap 
pocket microscopes, he will notice that there are delicate 
grooves crossing the furrows, and that a small orifice exists 
in the center of each of them. Some of these orifices oc¬ 
cupy nearly the whole of the groove, and are the openings' 
of the perspiratory ducts, from which may be seen to issue, 
if the hand is warm, tiny shining dots of perspiratory matter. 

“ But perspiration is not held in the body as water is held 
in a sponge, which can be squeezed out by pressure or by 
throwing it about; neither does it exist ready formed within 
us, as are the juices in apples and oranges. Upon the under 
surface of the true skin there are a multitude of little cavi¬ 
ties, and in them are minute glands, which resemble raveled 
tubes, formed of basement membrane and epithelial scales, 
with true secreting surfaces. It is the work of these little 
organs to receive the impure blood which is constantly 
brought to them through a network of arteries, and to 
pvrify it; and to thrust out of the system the waste or of¬ 
fensive matter which is separated from it. These impuri¬ 
ties come along in the blood, and are cast out through the 
perspiratory ducts while . dissolved in that medium. After 
the blood is thus cleansed, another set of vessels are ready at 
hand to carry it back into the interior of the body, to be- 


42 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


come again and again loaded with impurities, which the lit¬ 
tle glands are tireless in extracting and removing. What 
organs in the human body subserve higher or more vital pur¬ 
poses than these? Does the liver or the stomach, or do the 
kidneys or the lungs, stand in more intimate relation with 
life than these little glands? We think not. Their size 
varies in different parts of the body. In the palm of the 
hand they are from 1-1,OOOtli to 1-2,OOOtli of an inch in di¬ 
ameter, 'while under the arm they are l-60th of an inch. • 
The length of the tube, which constitutes both gland and 
duct, is about a quarter of an inch, and the diameter is about 
1-1,700tli of an inch. It is a curious fact that the ducts, 
while traversing the true skin, are perfectly straight; but as 
soon as they enter the tough scarf-skin, they become spiral, 
and resemble a corkscrew, so that the perspiration is pro¬ 
pelled around the tube several times before it is ejected. 
Now, we are talking about small things; but so long as we 
confine our descriptions to a single duct, we utterly fail to 
realize their minuteness. Let us look at them collectively. 
On every square inch of the palm of your hand, reader, 
there are at-least 3,500 of these perspiratory ducts. Each one 
of them being one quarter of an inch long, we readily see 
that every square inch of skin surface on this part of the 
body has seventy-three feet of tubing , through which mois¬ 
ture and effete matter are constantly passing, night and day. 
Idle ducts, however, are shorter elsewhere; and it will be 
fair to estimate sixty feet as the average length of the ducts 
for each square inch of the body. This estimate (reckoning 
2,500 square inches of surface for a person of ordinary size) 
gives for these ducts an aggregate length of twenty-eight miles . 

“ The amount of liquid matter which passes through these 
microscopical tubes in twenty-four hours, in an adult person 
in sound health, is about sixteen fluid ounces, or one . pint. 
One ounce of the sixteen is solid matter, made up of or¬ 
ganic and inorganic substances, which, if allowed to remain 
in the system for a brief space of time, would cause death. 
The jest is water. Besides the water and solid matter, a 
large amount of carbonic acid, a gaseous body, passes 
through the tubes; so we cannot fail to understand that 
they are active workers , and also we cannot fail to see the dm- 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


43 


portance of keeping them in perfect working order, removing 
obstructions by frequent application of water, or by some 
other means. Suppose we obstruct the functions of the skin 
perfectly, by varnixhivg a person completely with a com¬ 
pound impervious to moisture. How long will lie live? 
Not over six hours. The experiment was once tried on a 
child at Florence. Pope Leo X., on the occasion of his ac¬ 
cession to the Papal chair, wished to have a living figure to 
represent the Golden Age, and so he had a poor child gilded 
all over with varnish and gold-leaf. The child died in a few 
hours. If the fur of a rabbit or the skin of a pig be covered 
with a solution of India-rubber in naphtha, the animal ceases 
to breathe in a couple of hours. These statements are pre¬ 
sented in order that we may obtain some idea of the impor¬ 
tance of the functions of the skin.” 

From this our fair readers may judge of the dangerous 
consequences to the health of painting white and red—using 
assistance, as the ladies’ maids say. Happily only a portion 
of the skin suffers from this pernicious folly; but even in 
that degree great harm is done, and the skin itself soon 
shrivels and turns yellow, compelling a persistence in the 
same habits Jong after they are desired by their victim. 

Skins differ. Some are cold and smooth; some moist and 
warm; some oily; some hard and dry. They differ also in 
thickness, color, and elasticity. The thin, soft and delicate 
skins belong to the brunettes, the thick to the dead white 
complexions. The grain of the skin also differs—it is fine 
or coarse, as it may be. 

Now, how is the skin to be kept fine and beautiful? By 
perfect cleanliness, air, sunshine, and good health. 

Sunshine, in spite of tanning and freckles, is good for 
the skin. So is fresh air. Both united give bloom and 
color to it; and if the air and sunshine are taken early, be¬ 
fore the former has lost its morning fragrance, and while 
the latter has not yet gained its power to tan, the benefit is 
very certain, and. a bloom of Hebe may be expected. 

Nbw about cleanliness. The skin should be washed all 
over daily, in a bath if possible. But sometimes baths are 
not easily attainable. The following substitute for them will 
be found effectual: 


44 


THE BOOK OP BEAUTY. 


Have a small square cut from a thick, blanket, put it be¬ 
fore your wasli-hand stand. Obtain a very large square 
sponge and a piece of soft flannel. Stand in a little luke¬ 
warm water in the foot-pan, which is to be placed on the 
blanket; soap all over with the flannel, and use the best soap 
you can buy. Water without soap will not cleanse you; 
the oil of the skin resists it. Wash off the soap. This 
washing should be done in warm water. Then fill the large 
sponge with cold water, and sponge all over for freshness. 
Dry your skin with a coarse towel, and rub long and hard, 
till the skin glows. 

This system of washing the skin will preserve you in 
health-during the whole winter; and many people who can¬ 
not bear the shock of a cold bath can bear the cold spong¬ 
ing after washing. 

The water used for the skin should be raimwater; but if 
drawn from cisterns, it must b e filtered to clear it from smuts 
and impurities. 

Hard water is most objectionable: The process of washing 
with it has been thus described by a skilled professor: 

“ First, the skin is wetted with the water, then soap is 
applied; the latter soon decomposes all the hardening salts 
contained in the small quantity of water with which the 
skin is wetted, and there is then formed a strong solution 
of soap, which penetrates into the pores of the skin. This 
is the process which goes on while a lather is produced in 
washing, but now the lather requires to be removed from 
the skin. How can this be done? Obviously only in one 
of two ways, viz.: by wiping it off with a towel or by rins¬ 
ing it away with water. In the former case the pores of 
the skin are left filled with soap solution, in the latter they 
become plugged up with the greasy curdy matter which re- v 
suits from the action of the hard water upon the soap solu-'^ 
tion occupying the pores of the skin. As the latter process 
of removing the lather is the one universally adopted, the 
operation of washing with soap and hard water is perfectly 
analogous to that used by the dyer or calico-printer when he 
wishes to fix a pigment in the pores of any tissue. He 
first introduces into the tubes of the fiber of calico, for in¬ 
stance, a liquid containing one of the ingredients necessary 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


45 


for tlie formation of the insoluble pigment; this is then fol¬ 
lowed by another liquid current containing the remaining 
necessary ingredients; the insoluble pigment is then produced 
within the very tubes of the cotton fiber, and is thus im¬ 
prisoned in such a manner as to defy removal by subse¬ 
quent washing. The process of washing, therefore, in hard 
water, is essentially one of dyeing the shin with the white, 
insoluble, greasy and curdy salts of the fatty acids con¬ 
tained in soap. The pores of the skin are thus blocked up, 
and it is only because the insoluble pigment produced is 
white, that such a repulsive operation is tolerated. To 
those, however, who have been accustomed to wash in soft 
Tvater, the abnormal condition of the skin thus induced is, 
for a long time, extremely unpleasant.” 

When rain-water cannot be procured, the soap should 
be washed off with very warm water, which cleans the skin 
best. 

Miss Nightingale has admirably explained the effect of 
hot water on the skin. 

“ Compare,’.’ she says, “ the dirtiness of the water in 
which you have washed when it is cold without soap; cold 
with soap; hot with soap. You will find the first has hard¬ 
ly removed any dirt at all; the second a little more; the 
third a great deal more. But hold your hand over a cup 
of hot water for a minute or two, and then, by merely rub¬ 
bing with your finger, you will bring off flakes of dirt or 
dirty skin. After a vapor bath you may peel your whole 
self clean in this way. What I mean is, that by simply 
washing or sponging with water you do not really clean 
your skin. Take a rough towel, dip one corner in very hot 
water—if a little spirit be added to it, it will be more ef¬ 
fectual—and then rub as if you were rubbing the towel into 
your, skin with your fingers. The black flakes which will 
come off will convince you that you were not clean before, 
however much soap and water you have used. These flakes 
are what require removing. And you can really keep your¬ 
self cleaner with a tumbler of hot water and a rough towel 
and rubbing, than with a whole apparatus of bath and soap 
and sponge, without rubbing. It is quite nonsense to say 
that anybody need be dirty. 


46 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


“ Washing, however, with a large quantity of water, has 
quite other effects than those of mere cleanliness. The skin 
absorbs the water and becomes softer and more perspira¬ 
ble. To wash with soap and soft water is, therefore, desira¬ 
ble from other points of view than that of cleanliness.” 

A hot bath occasionally is very desirable, but when it 
cannot be had, washing in the manner we have described, 
may take its place. 

The cold bath, when people can bear it, is health-giving i 
and invigorating, but not cleansing. Sea-water baths are 
still less useful in the way of cleansing; indeed, a warm 
bath is often found necessary after a short course of them. 
The same remark applies to the sea-salt baths now so much 
in vogue. Apart from the invigorating effect of-the cold 
water in the daily bath, the friction occasioned by the rub 
of the towel is very beneficial. Rough towels should there¬ 
fore be used in moderation. 

Milk baths, and baths impregnated with perfumes, need 
not be mentioned except as absurdities in which silly women 
have believed and still do believe; but they are too expensive 
for the general public to be guilty of such folly. 

The use of eau de Cologne occasionally in the water used 
for washing the face and neck will be very desirable, as it 
assists in cleansing and brightening the skin; or a little gin 
may be used instead of eau de Cologne. 

Elder-flower water cools and refreshes, and therefore bene¬ 
fits the skin; so also does rose-water, but scarcely with as 
good results. In summer the use of these perfumed and 
spirituous waters will be found very pleasant and freshening. 

But animal grease of any kind, and cold cream , should 
never be put near the skin. 

If greasing it is required, olive oil should be used, and 
this will sometimes be beneficial for very dry chapped skins, 
as it softens them. Rub the face with it gently every night 
in winter, and your skin will never chap. 

But a naturally oily skin must on no account have oil used 
for it; a few drops of camphor in water may be used, or it 
may be powdered with fuller’s earth, after washing, as a 
baby’s skin is sometimes treated. Violet powder constantly 
used makes the skin rough, and enlarges the pores. 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


47 


Neither paint (which, as we have seen, may produce terri¬ 
ble diseases, and can only harm the skin,) nor powder, nor 
grease, are necessary. Rain-water, good soap, and a rough 
towel suffice for a perfect toilet. 

This passage, a propos of one of the famous beauties of 
the sixteenth century, will be read with deep interest in this 
connection: 

“It was not to such tricks”—the writer has been speak¬ 
ing of wearing masks, and of Marguerite de Navarre’s quar¬ 
rel with her husband, Henri Quatre, who objected to her 
sleeping in one—“It was not to such tricks that Diana of 
Poitiers, Duchess of Yalentinois, resorted to preserve her 
beauty to the age of threescore years and ten; she who at 
sixty-five rode on horseback like a girl! This remarkable 
woman was a celebrated beauty in an age of beauties, yet, 
strange to say, no historian has ever given details of those 
wondrous charms which captivated two kings, one of them 
fifteen years her junior in age. We do not even know 
whether her eyes were blue or black, whether her hair was 
light or dark; we only know that she was the loveliest wo¬ 
man at a Court of lovely women, and that at an age when 
most women are shriveled specimens of ugliness. People 
said she possessed a secret that rendered her thus impervious 
to the ravages of time. Some went so far as to say in that 
superstitious age that she had bought her secret from a very 
dark gentleman indeed! What was this secret, then? Did 
she ever tell it? Never. Did any one ever know it? Yes, 
her perfumer. Did he never tell it? Not during her life. 
It is known, then? It'is, for those who have the patience to 
wade through musty manuscripts and books. May we not 
know it? You will only smile and disbelieve! Try. Good, 
then, I will translate Maitre Oudard’s own words to you— 
‘ I, Oudard, apothecary, surgeon and perfumer, do here de¬ 
clare on my faith and on the memory of my late honored and 
much-beloved mistress, Madame Diane of Poitiers, Duchess 
of Yalentinois, that the only secret she possessed, with which 
to be and remain in perfect health, youth, and beauty to the 
age of seventy-two, was— rain-water! And, in truth, I assert 
there is nothing in the world like this same rain-water, a con¬ 
stant use of which is imperative to render the skin soft and 


48 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


downy, or to freshen the color, or to cleanse the pores of the 
skin, or to make beauty last as long as life!’ 

“ Thus, the only service which Maitre Oudard rendered his 
illustrious mistress was to gather the rain-water for her, bot¬ 
tle it and seal it up, to be in readiness in case of scarcity of 
rain. So all these bottles of philtres which daily arrived 
from the great perfumer to the still greater lady only con¬ 
tained rain-water! Is that possible? 

“Diana always took an hour’s outdoor exercise before the 
dew had left the ground.” 

Early rising is no doubt one of the secrets of beauty; that 
it was so understood by our ancestors, the superstition o£ the 
May dew testifies. But now, alas! the attendant spirits of 
our households will never rise till the dew has long evapo¬ 
rated. For our young ladies early rising soon becomes a 
forgotten virtue of the school-room. 

Moles are frequently a great disfigurement to a face, but 
they should not be tampered with in any way. The only 
safe and certain mode of getting rid of them is by a surgical 
operation. 

Freckles are of two kinds. Those occasioned by exposure 
to the sunshine, and consequently evanescent, are denomin¬ 
ated “summer freckles;” those which are constitutional and 
permanent are called “cold freckles.” 

With regard to the latter, it is impossible to give any ad¬ 
vice which will be of value. They result from causes not 
to be atfected by mere external applications. 

Summer freckles are not so difficult to deal with, and with 
a little care the skin may be kept free from this cause of dis¬ 
figurement. 

Some skins are so delicate that they become freckled on the 
slightest exposure to the open air in summer. The cause 
assigned for this is, that the iron in the blood, forming a 
junction with the oxygen, leaves a rusty mark where the 
junction takes place. 

If this be so, the obvious cure is to dissolve the combina¬ 
tion—for which purpose several courses have been recom¬ 
mended. 

1. At night wash the skiu with elder-flower water, and 
apply this ointment'—made by simmering gently together one 


THE BOOK OP BEATJTY. 


40 


ounce of Venice soap, a quarter of an ounce of deliquated 
oil of tartar, and ditto of oil of bitter almonds. When it 
acquires consistency, three drops of rhodium may be added. 
Wash the ointment off in the morning with rose-water. 

2 (and best.) One ounce of alum, ditto of lemon-juice, in 
a pint of rose-water. 

3. Scrape horseradish into a cup of cold sour milk, let it 
stand twelve hours, strain, and apply, two or three times a 
day; but this remedy is painful, and must be used with care, $ 

4. Mix lemon-juice, one ounce; powdered borax, a quarter 
of a drachm; keep for a few days in a glass bottle; apply 
occasionally. 

5. Another remedy is, muriate of ammonia, half a drachm; 
lavender-water, two drachms; distilled water, half a pint; 
apply two or three times a day. 

6. Into half a pint of milk squeeze the juice of a lemon, 
with a spoonful of brandy, and boil, skimming well; add a 
drachm of rock-alum. 

There are various other discolorations of the skin, pro¬ 
ceeding frequently from derangement of the system; the 
cause sl»ould always be discovered before attempting a 
remedy, otherwise you may increase the complaint instead of 
curing it. 

The following is a good cerate for removing discoloration 
of the skin: 

Elderflower ointment, one ounce; sulphate of zinc, twenty 
grains; mix w T ell, and rub into the affected skin at night. 
In the morning w^ash it off with plenty of soap, and when 
the grease is completely removed, apply the following lo¬ 
tion; infusion of rose-petals, half a pint; citric acid, thirty 
grains. All local discolorations will disappear-under this 
treatment; and, if the freckles do not entirely yield, they 
will, in most instances, be greatly ameliorated. Should any 
unpleasant irritation, or roughness of the skin, follow the 
application, a lotion composed of half a pint of almond 
mixture and half a drachm of Goulard’s extract, will afford 
immediate relief. 

We may sum up the whole matter of personal beauty 
by saying it is produced chiefly bv good health, early ris¬ 
ing, leaving the figure uncompressed, and being intelligent 


50 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


and good-tempered. Says a well-known American physi¬ 
cian: 

“There is nothing more unfavorable to female beauty 
than late hours. Women who, either from necessity or 
choice, spend most of the day in bed, and the night at work 
or dissipation, have always a pale, faded complexion and 
dark-rimmed, wearied eyes. Too much sleep is almost as 
hurtful as too little, and is . sure to bloat the person with a 
pallid and unwholesome fat. Diet, also, has a marked in¬ 
fluence upon personal beauty. Generous living is favorable 
to good looks, as it tends to fill out and give color and 
sleekness to the skin. A gross and excessive indulgence, 
however, in eating, and drinking, is fatal to the female 
charms, especially where there is a great tendency to “ mak¬ 
ing flesh.” Regularity of time in the daily-repast, and 
scientific cooking, are the best means of securing not only 
good health but good looks] The appetite should never be 
wasted during the intervals between meals on pastry, con¬ 
fectionery, or any other tickler of appetite, which gratifies 
the taste, but does not support the system. Exercise is, of 
course, essential to* female beauty. It animates tl# blood, 
bightens the color, develops the growth, and perfects the 
form of each limb, and gives grace to every movement.” 

Which is an epitomized code of the laws of health and 
good looks. 

A placid temper will long keep wrinkles in abeyance, and 
years of good humor and kindness will leave a sweet mouth 
to old age, while cultivated intelligence will give expression 
and spirit to the' eyes. 

Thus we see that goodness and sense are the best hand¬ 
maids of beauty, and that “beautiful for ever” may not 
be a dream and a delusion. Of a beautiful woman thus 
embellished and preserved, we may say with Sliakspeare’s 
Miranda, 

Sure nothing ill can dwell in eueli a temple. 

We must say a few words about the disfigurement to which 
the skin is subject at times, in small black specks—a sort 
of pimple. These are caused by the enlargement of the 
perspiratory ducts, which leave a portion of the perspiring 
matter exposed to the air, which turns it black. It should 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


51 


be squeezed out; and if the tube is still large, and the same 
appearance likely to return, it must be touched by a doctdr 
with caustic, to contract the opening; but, ordinarily, the 
duct will close of itself. 

Small pimples may be removed by using a wash of about 
as much borax as would cover sixpence, in a cup of water; 
the face to be dabbed with it with a soft rag. 

Gruel may be used to wash the face in cases of eruption, 
instead of soap, which will irritate the skin when not in a 
healthy condition; but in such cases resort should be had 
at once to the surgeons who have made the study of the skin 
a speciality, and no quack remedies should be used. All a 
lady can do for herself under the circumstances would be 
to use great cleanliness, and be careful not to wear any part 
of her dress tight. 

Cosmetics never really improve the skin, whether it be in 
a healthy state or not. 

Sallowness belongs to a bacl state of health, and should also 
come under the discipline of the physician. 

The following simple receipts for the toilet appearing 
to be of use, we have give them place. 

Toilet Vinegar.-r -Add to the best malt vinegar half a pint 
of cognac and a^intof rose-water. Scent maybe added; 
and if so, it should be first mixed with the spirit before the 
other ingredients are put in. 

Philocome .—This is the name of a good French pomade. 
It is made by melting three ounces of white wax, by the ac¬ 
tion of hot water round the vessel in which it is placed, and 
while the heat is kept up adding a pound of olive oil. 
Scents, such as bergamot, may be added as the other ingre¬ 
dients cool. Varieties of perfumes are used by manufacturers. 

Sticking Plaster .—Stretch a piece of black silk on a wooden 
frame, and apply dissolved isinglass to one side of it with a 
brush. Let it dry; repeat process, and then cover it with a 
strong tincture of balsam of Peru. 

Lavender-Water .—This mildest of perfumes is a prepara¬ 
tion of oil of lavender, two ounces, and orris root, half an 
ounce; put it into a pint of spirits of wine and keep for tw T o 
or three weeks before it is used. It may require straining 
through blotting paper of two or three thicknesses. 


52 


THE HOOK OP BEAUT V. 


Milk of Roses .—This is a cosmetic. Pound an ounce of 
almonds in a mortar very finely, then put in shavings of 
honey soap in a small quantity. Add enough rose-water to 
enable you to work the composition with the pestle into a 
fine cream; and in order that it may keep, add to the wdiolo 
an ounce of spirits of wine by slow degrees. You may scent 
with otto of roses. Strain through muslin. Apply to the 
face with a sponge or a piece of lint. 

We may add what Eugene Rimmel, the great perfumer, 
says of these face lotions and cosmetics: 

“ Lotions for the complexion require of all other cosmetics 
to be carefully prepared. Some are composed with mineral 
poisons, which render them dangerous to use, although they 
may be effectual in curing skin diseases. There ought to 
be always a distinction made between those that are intended 
for healthy skins, and those that are to be used for cutane¬ 
ous imperfections; besides, the latter may be easily removed 
without having recourse to ,any violent remedies. 

“ Paints for the face w T e cannot recommend. Rouge is 
innocuous in itself, being made of cochineal and safflower; 
but whites are often made of deadly poisons, such as cost 
poor Zelger his life a few years sincejt The best white 
ought to be made of mother-of-pearl, but it is not often so 
prepared. To professional people, who cannot dispense with 
these, we can only recommend great care in their selection; 
but to all others we may say, cold water, fresh air, and exer¬ 
cise, are the best recipes for health and beauty; for no b®r- 
rowed charms can equal those of 

“ ‘ A woman’s face, with Nature’s own hand painted.’ ” 

With which most excellent advice we close this most im¬ 
portant of our chapters on beauty. The hints here given, 
if acted upon, will surely profit every reader. 

* M. Zelger was a Belgian singer at the Royal Italian Opera. During 
the performance of Guillaume Tell,” some of the paint which he had on 
his face accidentally entered his mouth, and he died in consequence after 
a very painful and lingering illness, 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


53 


CHAPTER Till. 

DRESS WITH RESPECT TO BEAUTY-POWER OF DRESS ON 

BEAUTY-FASHION-WHY SO IMPERATIVE-LONG-PAST FASH¬ 
IONS-FORM AND COLOR-M. DE CHEVREUL ON COLOR- 

ITS EFFECT ON THE COMPLEXION-LACE, A GRAY COLOR 

-SIZE AFFECTED BY COLOR-STRIPES-THROAT: SHORT¬ 
ENED OR LENGTHENED-ADAPTATIONS OF DRESS TO DIF¬ 

FERENT AGES. 

We believe that few of our readers will deny the truth of 
our assertion when we say that beauty is not always, when 
“ unadorned, adorned the most;” in fact, in spite of the 
poets, we believe that dress has much to do with personal 
loveliness. It can enhance and set off beauties and conceal 
defects in a much greater degree than the generality of peo¬ 
ple are aware of. Form and color in conjunction, and 
modified by fashion, are the materials of the art of pic¬ 
turesque dress as well as of beauty. We advisedly say pic¬ 
turesque —by it we mean nothing singular or outre, but that 
skillful adaptation of form and color which would best serve 
the artist if he were to be called on to paint a portrait of 
the wearer. 

Fashion must be studied. Anything just become old - 
fashioned will always disagreeably affect the eye—probably, 
as we have said before, from association. We do not see 
the best people so dressed; style is lacking, and the effect 
becomes mean and poor. The fashions of past centuries 
have not this effect on us. We connect them in imagination 
with the pictures in which we have seen them worn by the 
great and beautiful of past ages, and we admire them, and 
even wear them as becoming and ornamental when a fancy 
ball gives us the opportunity to do so. But with modern 
“ old fashions ” it is very different. No one can deny the 
singular fact that nearly everything, fashionable is pleasing. 
The extreme of all fashions should, however, be avoided. 
Happily, those of the present day lend themselves to pic- 


54 


THE BOOK OP BEAUTY. 


turesque effect; and in one point we may always use, in a 
great measure, our own taste and judgment—we mean in 
the matter of color. 

Now, of the secrets of color , our women are frequently ig¬ 
norant, though as a people we are improving in taste and 
the art of good dressing, for art it is. Monsieur de Cliev- 
reul, the superintendent of the Gobelin Tapestry manufac¬ 
ture, has, cf late years, given much information on the sub¬ 
ject of color as adapted to different styles and complexions. 
He says: 

“ Colors placed in juxtaposition effect a modification in 
tint or hue on each other. Place blue and green of nearly 
the same liight of tone side by side, and you will perceive 
that the blue will look less greenish and become more violet, 
and the green will take an orange tinge. 

“ Under similar conditions, an orange and a red mutually 
affect each other, and pass respectively toward yellow and 
crimson. Even two white stripes by the side of two black, 
or even two gray stripes matched with two brown ones, un¬ 
dergo severally, and severally induce, a change, the tone of 
the gray or the brilliancy of the white being hightened, 
those of the brown and of the black being in a correspond¬ 
ing degree lowered by the mutual neighborhood of these 
different stripes. It is then a phenomenon affecting tone 
(*• e -i relative depth of grayness) as well as tint (i. e., relative 
quantity of color). 

“Furthermore, black, white, or gray, placed in juxtapo¬ 
sition with colored stripes, exhibit changes, the character of 
which can be readily anticipated. Thus, white with red 
mutually produce difference both in tone and tint. The tone 
of white (absolute whiteness being the greatest liiglit of tone 
to which all color can approximate) reacts on the tone of the 
red, lowering it. The color of the red reacts on the color¬ 
lessness of the white, impressing this with a slight tint, not 
of red, dear reader, but of the c®lor most different from the 
red that is to say, the complementary color, namely, green. 
Hence, red and white become respectively a deeper-toned 
(darker) red contrasted with a slightly greenish white. 
Hence, too, black and red become a very faintly greenish 
and much less rich black, and a more white (lower toned) red. 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


55 


“ The hue variations become marvelously distinct in a 
well-chosen gray whose tone is commensurate with that of 
the color juxtaposed to it. Here, the modification of tone 
not affecting the relative brilliancy of the color and the gray, 
the former impresses on the latter its complementary tint, so 
that a red will render a like-toned gray quite perceptibly 
green, itself becoming of a purer redness, while a blue simi¬ 
larly brightened will impart to it a decided orange. Grays 
slightly tinted with any color have that color in a surprising 
way intensified by juxtaposition with its complementary, so 
that a bluish gray will become almost a decided blue in the 
neighborhood of orange.” 

The effect of color in juxtaposition to the complexion 
must, therefore, be considered. We have seen above that 
red placed against white gives the white a tinge of green. 
Our readers will understand, consequently, that, although 
the skin is never a pure white, as silk or linen may be, still, 
red placed against it would not be becoming to a very fair 
complexion. A fair infant can scarcely bear the juxtaposi¬ 
tion of a decided scarlet. 

The rule is, that the color in juxtaposition will cast' its 
complementary color on the skin. But what are the Com¬ 
plementary ” colors? We will explain. 

There are three primary colors: red, blue and yellow. 
These united form all the other colors—for example: 

Red and blue form purple. 

Red and yellow, orange. 

Blue and yellow, green. 

Now, each primary color has its complementary color in 
the other two mixed together. For instance; red has green for 
its complementary, because blue and yellow, the two other 
primary colors, make green. The complementary of yellow 
is purple, because red and blue make purple. Thus the ef¬ 
fect of yellow, if placed in juxtaposition to a very white skin, 
would be to give it a tint of purple. 

The complementary of blue is orange, for red and yellow 
make that color. Thus we see that red would give a tint of 
green, yellow of purple, and blue of orange. 

The ‘ secondary colors formed by the primary are green, 
made by the union of blue and yellow; purple, formed from 


56 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


red and blue; and orange, the union of red and yellow. 
The complementaries of these colors are the primaries them¬ 
selves. 

The secondary colors united form the grays, which- are 
tinged with the hue of the colors which formed them. 
Thus we have a red gray, a blue gray, a greenish gray, a 
purple gray, etc. And then follow all the neutral tints, 
with the browns of many shades, the doves, stones, and 
fawn colors. I 

It will be apparent to readers that the strong primary 
colors, placed in juxtaposition to the skin, cannot be very 
becoming, unless softened or modified. This is best done 
by the intervention of gray , which color is given by lace , the 
white threads of which reflect light, while the spaces absorb 
it, and thus produce a gray shade. 

White lace or black lace interposed between a strong color 
and the skin will be found to produce a softening and har¬ 
monizing effect. It is possible that an instinctive sense of 
this fact has inclined milliners to make their bonnets more 
becoming by edging the strings which touch the chin and 
cheeks with lace. 

The refection of color is another thing. A red light fall¬ 
ing on the face would give a rosy tint—as we see in the 
effect of pink hangings to rooms, or the reflection of colored 
glass. But in the present day there is little possibility of 
obtaining by dress a reflected color on the face. When the 
bonnets surrounded the face, a pink lining would give a 
pretty rosy flush to it; but, now-a-days, bonnets cast no re¬ 
flection, and the strings alone test the skill of the wearer, be¬ 
ing in juxtaposition with the sides of the face. Hats, how¬ 
ever, may still be studied with a view to the effect of reflec¬ 
tion. 

In speaking of color, we must remember the infinite 
variety of tints, hues, and shades, all bearing the same generic 
name merely modified by an uncertain adjective. In nothing 
is language so wanting as in a nomenclature for colors. Blue 
—but how many shades of blue there are! Warm blues, 
colder blues, gray blues, lilac blues—no end of blues! We 
call them all by one name, yet the tint may make all the 
difference. 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


57 


“The learned,” says Alphonse Karr, whose wonderful 
bouquets prove how fully he understood the subject—“the 
learned who have invented so many words, ought to have 
imagined some that might give an exact idea of colors and 
their shades. * * * There are but few words to desig¬ 

nate colors, and even they are taken at hazard from ideas 
that are very far removed from each other. This annoys me 
the more because colors have for me harmonies as ravishing 
as those of music—because they awaken in my mind thoughts 
perfectly strict and individual, and influence acts powerfully 
on my imagination. It often happens, even in houses in 
which I am not very much at home, that I rise in the midst 
of a conversation to go and separate two inimical colors 
which some unlucky chance has brought into conjunction on 
one piece of furniture. There are for me between colors and 
their shades discords as strong as can possibly exist between 
certain notes of music. 

“ There are no false colors except in the nomenclature of 
our marchandes des modes; but there are assemblages of 
colors as false as the notes of any one who had never had a 
bow in his hand, but took a violin and scraped away at ran¬ 
dom. I remember two persons who were always disagree¬ 
able to me on account of the colors they persisted in wearing. 
The first was a certain large woman, who always appeared in 
green dresses and yellow bonnets; the other, a man who 
decked himself out in staring red waistcoats and bright blue 
cravats. I endeavored to contend against the prejudices in¬ 
spired by such disfigurements. I have reason to repent; I 
have since had much to complain of in my relations with 
those two persons.” 

Monsieur Karr ends by proposing that colors should be 
defined by the names of flowers, as—Forget-me-not Blue, 
Westeria Blue, Bugloss Blue, etc.—a plan of which we highly 
approve. 

Using, however, our present nomenclature, we would say 
that turquoise blue is very becoming (in juxtaposition) to 
rather faded or very pale complexions; while the bugloss blue 
(darker and warmer) suits the fresh complexions or the warm 
brunette. Blue is a comparatively cold color, and suits nearly 
everybody. 


58 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


Scarlet requires a warm brunette skin, which will look 
clearer for a tinge of green. Rose-color is also very becom¬ 
ing to brunettes. 

A paler pink will harmonize with a very fresh young com¬ 
plexion. 

For the sallow, and those who are no longer young, pink 
is sadly trying—it mocks their want of bloom. 

Amber suits warm brunettes and dark-haired people, but 
should be avoided by yellow-haired fair ladies, for whom a 
light pretty green or a tender blue is infinitely becoming. 

Light green gives, in juxtaposition to white, a pink tinge 

But we must remember, as we have said, that the skin is 
never quite white—it is more or less flesli-color; and this has 
to be considered when we think of the juxtaposition of colors. 
The best plan is personal experience. Every individual’s com¬ 
plexion differs from others Jn some hue or tint, which must 
be nameless. Let every one try separately the effect of differ¬ 
ent colors against her skin, and suit herself. Our present 
aim in these general hints is to show how important colors 
are in their effects, and how necessary it is to study them. 

We will, then, merely add that violet, which is a modifi¬ 
cation of purple, gives a yellow tint to the skin, and is becom¬ 
ing tn complexion. Dead white is bpcoming to too-florid 
people, as it deadens the red color by juxtaposition, but it 
makes pale-faced people look paler still. 

Black, being the absence of color, makes the skin look 
whiter, as it impresses no tint on it, and is generally becom¬ 
ing, though undoubtedly young, fresh-looking people some¬ 
times do not look well in black. 

The neutral tints also are very trying to faded complexions; 
they too nearly approach the color of the skin, and give a 
washed out look, deadening the complexion still more. Some 
of the brown tints, especially tlife chestnut browns, suit fair, 
warm complexions very well. The color of the hair is sure 
to become the skin. 

The proportion of color has also to be considered. A 
greater quantity of blue may be worn than of red or yellow. 
The proportion in light which produces perfect harmony of 
color is nearly double blue to red, and eight parts of blue to 
three of yellow. 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


59 


Brilliant colors relieving masses of dove, stone, gray or 
black and brown, are very effective, and light up the wearer, 
as it were, with gleams of colored light, without effacing her 
by their splendor, as they would do if worn in quantities. 

Jewels should also be worn with regard to color. Rubies 
do not look well with mauve, nor topazes with red; while 
pearls and mauve are exquisite together, and rubies show 
best with pearl-color and some tints of green. Diamonds, 
from their luster of many hues, may be worn with nearly 
every color, but show best with black. 

A general knowledge of the effect of color will, we are 
sure, do much for harmony in dress. 

Of colors worn in the hair, we may add that they should 
be brilliant and effective, harmonizing or in contrast. In 
red or auburn hair a pink bow should not be worn; green is 
the contrasting color, and blue looks well in it. 

In black hair, red, amber, light green, or a strong blue, 
looks well. In fair hair, light cerulean blue, deep rose- 
color, or a strong green, will do. 

White flowers do not look well in very light hair; colors 
are better. In pale brown hair crimson ribbon does well, 
or dark blue. Brunettes may wear the more brilliant colors, 
and will look the fairer for them. But we advise them to 
put lace always next the skin. 

Considering colors with regard to dress, we would advise 
that the great body of color should not be a strong and bril¬ 
liant one, as scarlet, violet, bright green, etc.—unless it is 
very much softened down by dark trimmings. The dress 
should frame a picture, net withdraw attention from it to 
itself. But soft diaphanous dress may be of bright colors, 
supposing that the hue be very delicate. 

With regard to the putting of colors together, Clievreul 
says, and truly: “ When two tones of the same color are 
juxtaposed”—laid side by side or next to each other—“ the 
light color will appear lighter and the dark color darker.” 
This applies in respect to light and dark; but the same will 
obtain in reference to different colors; thus a blue placed 
next to an orange will have the effect of giving power to 
both, for the orange will be more positively orange and the 
blue’ more positively blue, by what he—Chevreul—calls 


60 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


simultaneous contrast. The same holds with neutrals or ter- 
tiaries, contrasted with primaries or secondaries. A red rib¬ 
bon on any very dark ground—say black'—would appear 
light, while the same tint of red on a very light or white 
ground would appear much darker. Any color in juxtapo¬ 
sition with its complementary must be hightened by such 
position, as must the complementary, reciprocally, in the 
same degree by the primary which is its complementary. 
This knowledge may be of great use in arranging a lady’s 
toilet. 

There are some peculiarities about colors besides this; 
blue and white have a singular power of apparently increas¬ 
ing size, consequently they should not be worn by stout 
figures. 

Black apparently diminishes size, as do the browns and 
darker tones of green and crimson. 

There is something very restless in yellow. The eye can¬ 
not remain pleasantly fixed on any mass of it; beyond a 
trimming, a ribbon, or a flower, it should be used with great 
judgment. But softened and toned down by being partially 
covered with black lace, it is effective, handsome, and well 
suited to brunettes. 

Brown bears trimming with it in a dark or amber shade, 
and is the only color we like to see united to it. 

Black and amber look well together. 

We must say a word here as to the effect of colors with 
regard to the idea of warmth. It is a physical fact that 
some are really warmer— i. e., absorb more heat—than 
others. Black, violet, indigo and crimson are warm colors- 
green, blue, yellow, white, are cold—therefore adapted for 
summer wear. The grays are warm or cold, according to 
the tint; a reddish gray would be warm, a blue gray 
cold. 

Colors also should be worn in due proportion of harmony, 
and, as we have said before, the mass of color in a dress 
should not be of brilliant hue. The blacks, browns, grays, 
stones, dove-colors, are all better for the whole of the dress 
than the reds, blues, greens, or ambers, unless the latter are 
subdued by darker trimmings or some part of the dress be¬ 
ing black; but we think, for the due display of beauty, the 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


61 


less prominent hues, with gleams of brilliant color united to 
them, are best. 

Lines affect the apparent hight or breadth of the wearer. 
Stripes or trimmings down a dress give the appearance of 
greater hight. Stripes or rows of trimming round the figure 
make it appear plumper and shoi'ter. Consequently, too tall 
and too thin people should not wear stripes or trimmings 
down the dress but round it, and the dress should be full 
and bunchy. 

Short and stout people should wear long dresses not much 
trimmed above the bottom of the skirt. Lines or trimmings 
should run downward for them. 

The waist of short ladies should not be worn too long, 
whatever the fashion may be, as it gives them a wasp-like 
look. Too great length of throat—especially when it is 
thin and scraggy—may be made less perceptible by wearing 
the hair full and low at the back of the neck. The dress 
should be made high at the throat, and a ruff or velvet 
should be worn; or for evening dress a necklace. A throat 
too short and thick, which brings the head too near the 
shoulders, should have the hair raised at the back, and wear 
neither velvet nor necklace, but flat collars, and the dress 
cut low at the throat. We may observe here, en passant, 
that the thick white linen collars worn round the neck are 
unbecoming except to young ladies. The strong contrast of 
pure white is too trying for a complexion not in its first 
bloom; the soft gray of lace is much better in effect. 

Much dignity is given by long and sweeping skirts, which 
also add to the apparent hight of the figure. Short dresses 
make their wearers appear shorter; but, when fashionable, 
have a smart, piquant look. 

Light materials, which have a certain airy grace about 
them” should be worn by young girls. It adds to their ap¬ 
parent age to dress in costly moire, velvets, or dark rich 
silks, just as light, airy dresses actually add in appearance 
to the age of their wearers when they are past youth. The 
transparent muslin or grenadine of brilliant greqn, mauve, 
or blue, which looks fairylike and elegant on a young girl, 
gives an affected apd poor look to her mother or aunt of ma 
turer age. 


63 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


More solid and richer materials, and richer, fuller colors, 
belong to middle age, which has a ripe beauty of its own, 
and looks best in the brilliant hues of autumn, softened 
against the skin by lace, with which youth only can entirely 
dispense. 

It is amazing how the study of a harmonious dress will 
bring out the Juno-like beauty of matrons, which is lost in 
the lightness of a more youthful attire. And for old age also, 
soft, dark, warm colors will do much—with plenty of lace 
to soften the faded skin and cover the silvery hair. For age, 
too, has its beauty, and it is incumbent on old ladies, as well 
as young ones, to make the most of all personal gifts. A 
more scrupulous cleanliness and a greater care as to what is 
worn, is needed in old age. 

For rich old people black velvet, trimmed with old lace or 
fur, is always a becoming and beautiful dress; but there 
should always be gleams of rich color about it—crimson, or 
bright' rich blue, or violet in the costume somewhere. Old 
withered hands should have lace ruffles hanging over them, 
and should wear mittens. 

The choice of colors and some thought in blending them 
artistically will not take up more time than that bestowed on 
purchasing garments in bad taste—displeasing to the culti¬ 
vated eye, and disfiguring to the wearer. 

It is, therefore, surely not beneath the dignity of any sen¬ 
sible woman to take these matters into consideration. 


CHAPTER IX. 

DRESS WITH RESPECT TO BEAUTY-GLOYES: FIT, CUT, LENGTH, 

COLOR—BOOTS: EFFECT ON SIZE OF FOOT-ARTISTIC DRESS 

-THE GIRL-THE MATRON-THE OLD LADY. 

There is no more complete finish to dress than a good 
glove. It should always be a shade lighter than the dress 
with which it is worn. Dark gloves with light dresses are 
in very bad taste. 



THE BOOK OP BEAUTY. 


63 


Gloves should fit the hands perfectly; but there is little 
chance of this being effected except by having them made to 
measure. Every one who has been to Paris must remember 
the care with which the glover there tries on and Jits her gloves. 
In thisvcountry, where no trial of them is allowed, and the 
numbers are utterly uncertain, it is better to find one make 
that seems best to suit and always thereafter use that make. 
“ Alexander’’ and “ Jouvin” are both excellent makers. 

The glove should be fully long enough to come over the 
wrist, and should have two or three buttons; otherwise the 
hand will look short and thick. An ill-fitting glove will, in 
fact, disfigure the most lovely hand. * Gloves of the very 
palest shade of primrose, which look white by gaslight, are 
more becoming than the dead white kid, and last longer. 

Gloves in former ages were embroidered with pearls and 
gems, and were costly property. Now a-days, the excellence 
of their fit and their perfect freshness are their beauty. 

French gloves are considered the best cut, but some of the 
Irish gloves are said to be quite as good. They are however 
rarely seen in our stores. 

The Swedish kid glove, in its natural tan-color, looks very 
well, but it very soon becomes soiled, and is certainly not 
economical. The best gloves are always in the end the cheapest. 

Gloves sewn with colors make the hands look larger. 

Attention should also be paid to the boots worn, as their 
good or bad shape disfigure or display the beauty of the foot. 
They should be made longer than is absolutely necessary, as 
length of boot makes the foot appear slender. Walking boots 
should be thick enough to keep the feet dry. Their thick¬ 
ness will add to the hight of the figure, and give a good firm 
tread—not flat-footed, as thin house-shoes are apt to look. 

The following from “ Scribner’s Monthly” just expresses 
our idea of what woman’s dress ought to be: . 

“In examining a well-executed ideal painting containing 
a female figure, we perceive that there are no incongruities; 
the subject has been carefully studied in mass and detail: 
Age, too, has been considered. A young girl is represented 
in bright tint of delicate materials, with airy, graceful outlines, 
which vail without hiding the rounded contours of youth; the 
matron is more richly and gorgeously arrayed, while the re- 


64 


THE BOOK OP BEAUTY. 


dundancy of her figure is obscured by the dark colors ana 
long heavy skirts of her robe; and the aged lady is well 
wrapped in warm and abundant folds of garments and man¬ 
tles, which hide her shriveled form. In well-drawn pictures 
we find that a woman’s hair is arranged to define the natural 
contour of her head. In youth the hair falls backward and 
downward in waving and curling masses; in mature woman¬ 
hood it is coiled round the head; in old age a silken hood or 
lace kerchief still follows the natural outline, and makes 
drapery about the shriveled neck.” 

Taste in dress, as in every other art, is worth cultivation ; 
and when its perfection has been attained by American 
women, much of the expense lavished on costly but unbecom¬ 
ing and tasteless dress will be spared, for they will become 
capable of inaugurating fashions themselves, and will learn 
how, at how little expense, good taste will improve their 
national beauty. 

Leigh Hunt, who said many wise things concerning female 
beauty, dress, etc., and who regarded the lips as expressing 
character as fully as the eyes, declared that beauty was too 
often sacrificed to fashion. “ The spirit of fashion is not 
beautiful but willful, not graceful but fantastic, not superior 
but vulgar.” Jeremy Taylor called woman “ the precious 
porcelain of human clay.” Aytoun says “a pretty woman 
is woman’s work in the world, making life summer by a look 
which tells us of a large heart and all the gentleness of hu¬ 
manity.” A smile, which speaks of heaven’s compassionate¬ 
ness, is, after all, the apotheosis of a pretty woman. Seneca 
said, “Virtue is more agreeable coming from a beautiful 
body.” Beauty is sometimes called the “ fatal gift,” because 
of the miseries which pursue its chances in life. “ I have 
known few women in my life,” said Mary Montagu, “ whose 
extraordinary charms and accomplishments did not make 
them unhappy.” 

The many and varied pictures of Queen Elizabeth much 
confuse the readers of history and both friends and enemies 
of that great ruler of her time. It is generally conceded that 
she was, after her “hey-day” of youth, a plain, if not an 
ugly woman, and that in her old age she was positively hid¬ 
eous. Ristori’s personation of the bold-hearted queen includes 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


(15 


the most wonderful exhibition of mobility of features ever 
seen in the changes which so perfectly portray the advance of 
senility and render almost pathetically ugly a face so beautiful 
as that with which nature endowed the Italian muse. When 
Queen Elizabeth was far advanced in life she ordered all pic¬ 
tures of herself painted by artists who had not flattered her 
faded features to be collected and burned, and in 1593 she 
issued a proclamation forbidding all persons, “save special 
cunning artists,” to draw her likeness. At last the queen 
quarreled with her impolitely faithful looking-glass, and Ris¬ 
ton's thought ought not to allow the presence of a mirror in 
the final scene of her “Elizabeth,” as it is an historical fact 
that none were allowed in her presence during her last years. 
No attendant would have dared to permit her to see one. 

Probably no woman of her time did more to spoil her 
beauty than Elizabeth, and certainly no woman showed less 
taste in her dress. The trouble was, she was a woman of a 
very coarse nature. True refinement she never knew. Dress 
with her was not a “ fine art ’ but a mere means of display¬ 
ing what she called “her charms,” but as she really had no 
charms of person or mind or morals or demeanor the “ good 
Queen Bess ” of Shakspeare was more sensible than her flat¬ 
terers and courtiers in not wanting to see her mirror. 

Our women have no such models to imitate and emulate, 
as Elizabeth. They must often consult their mirror, and by 
using the advice we have tried to impress on their attention 
they will find that beauty is enhanced, improved and per¬ 
fected by that knowledge of color, dress and effects which 
the laws of art and harmony prescribe. 


66 


THE HOOK OF BEAUTY. 


CHAPTER X. 

CARE OF BEAUTY IN INFANCY BEAUTY TO BE THOUGHT 

OF IN INFANCY INSEPARABLE FROM HEALTH PRESERV¬ 
ING THE COMPLEXION-AIR, EXERCISE, DIET-BATH- 

LIGHT-TANNING AND FRECKLING-EYELASHES-TEETH- 

GUMS-FIG U RE-W ALKIN G-RECLINING-FEET EXERCISES 

-HAIR-EYES. 

We cannot close our chapters on beauty without a few 
words to mothers on the importance of early taking into 
consideration the personal appearance of their children. 
And happily the subject leads to the benefit not only of the 
beauty, but the health of their babes, for without health 
there is no hope of ultimate beauty. 

All babes are lovely. If their features do not promise 
perfection, their complexion, when healthy, is beauty in it¬ 
self. How clear and pure the skin is! how bright -and 
limpid the glance! how sweet and soothing the divine ex¬ 
pression of purity and innocence! 

That lovely complexion may be preserved, but, alas, sel¬ 
dom is! Our babes are too often shut up from the oxygen 
which should nourish the blood which forms their complex¬ 
ion, lu close small, nui^eries; sometimes, in London, under¬ 
ground; and they sleep, in towns, too often in small, ill-ven¬ 
tilated rooms, with the nurses. 

Now, the first essential for a child’s future beauty is ozone 
—that is, pure air and plenty of it , and sunshine. No nur¬ 
sery should look toward the north—it should have the 
morning sun, and it should be airy; and no child should 
sleep in a small bed-room with its nurse, with a smaller 
allowance of air than the law makes necessary in a national 
school. Give your babes, oh mother! plenty of air and 
light, and they will grow like the flowers and be as lovely 
as they are. 

But do not allow your little girls to freckle, for freckles 


TilE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


67 


are difficult to remove, and come early. They are caused 
by the oxygen in the air combining under the influence of 
sunshine; they may be prevented by shading the face with 
the ordinary cotton sun-bonnet. 

If the little face gets tanned, it will be worth washing it 
with elderflower-water at once. In fact, in summer it is 
sometimes needed to cool the skin. 

Soft rain-water should always be used for infants, and 
never allow your nurse to be guilty of the dirty and skin- 
injuring process of bathing or washing two or three children 
in the same water. We are quite aware that this is never 
done in the higher-class nurseries; but we believe it is too 
often the case in middle class ones. The water used should 
be quite pure and clean; the soap of the very best kind— 
glycerine or honey soap, or the very best yellow 7 , not that 
ordinarily used in washing; but yellow soap is not pleasant 
on an infant’s skin. 

Exercise daily and good food are required for future 
beauty. 

The mother may cut (carefully) the eyelashes of the sleep¬ 
ing infant (using scissors with two blunted points), and she 
will thus ensure long curled lashes by-and-by. Every morn¬ 
ing the w 7 ee nose should be caressingly streaked between the 
finger and thumb, to make it a good shape; and as the little 
girl grows older, her eyebrows may have a little cocoa-nut 
oil applied, if they appear to grow too thin and pale. 

As the teeth grow they should be watched. They may 
be washed night and morning. Should the first teeth give 
signs of decay, the child should at once be taken to a good 
dentist for advice. Brown bread should always be given to 
rchildren; they require it for the formation of bones and 
1 teeth, as it contains phosphates of wheat. 

? The gums (if the teeth threaten decay) should be bathed 
with weak m-yrrh and water. Examine also the diet, and 
ascertain that no sugar plums are given in the nursery. 
Pure white sugar will not hurt; but bon-bons are too often 
poisonous. 

Watch the appearing of the second teeth. If they grow 
evenly, do not touch them; but if they are irregular, put 
them straight every day by gentle pressure. The pressure 


68 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


of a mother’s tender finger will prevent much future expense 
and pain in dentistry. Never let your children—when the 
second teeth come—use hard tooth-brushes; a small sponge 
and lukewarm water used after every meal is sufficient at 
first. When all are changed, a badger’s hair toothbrush 
may be given to the child, and must be used occasionally or 
about once a day. * 

Stroke the eyebrows every morning into an arch. 

With regard to the figure, we counsel you never to put the 4 
child in stays. Leave her as free in form as her brother, 
and she will be well-shaped and graceful. A looseish band 
of jean is sufficient to make her dress set smoothly. Do not 
permit a tight string anywhere; examine her dress daily 
yourself, for nurses are too careless in such matters. 

Do not suffer her to sit without support to her back; en¬ 
courage her to rest the spine by lying back in a chair; and 
once a day, after walking, make your children, both boys 
and girls, lie flat on the floor on a sheet for an hour. This 
will save weak spines, and make fine figures. 

Children should not be made to sit still long at a time. 

If they are kept long in one place, they will fidget, move 
restlessly from side by side, and take attitudes which may 
make them grow crooked. Let them often march, and clap 
their hands, and raise arms as in infant schools—the train¬ 
ing of which might be, with advantage, introduced into our 
nurseries. 

The arm-exercises already suggested in this little book 
should be used after ten years of age, and no stooping les¬ 
son—such as writing a copy or bending over maps—should 
end without them. Accustom the children to walk about 
the room every day for about half an hour, with their arms 
crossed behind their backs and a book on their heads; and 
give a reward to the child who can soonest carry a basket * 
or vase on her head without letting it fall. 

Exercises with the feet are also good for children, and 
may be taught with advantage. They should never be suf¬ 
fered to do anything awkwardly without being shown how 
to do it better; but they must not be harassed with frequent 
fault-finding or laughed at, or they will grow shy, nervous, 
and infallibly awkward. Notice if a child bites its nails, and 


THE BOOK OF BKAtfTY. 


69 


check the habit at once, as it utterly spoils both nails and 
fingers. 

It is by careful watching in infancy and childhood that 
high-bred girls are made so lovely and graceful; for beauty 
must be cared about, and grace inculcated in the nursery, 
if we hope to see its perfection in after years. W hen 
schoolroom duties come, the same watchfulness cannot be 
so well exercised, but if the previous years have been well 
cared for, much may be left to habit, and a wise governess 
will take care of any awkwardness incidental to girlhood. 

We have now the child’s hair to speak about. The mode 
of wearing it hanging loose is much the best for it; but, we 
think, out of doors, it should be tucked up or shaded by the 
hat or sun-bonnet, as it will fade in the air and sunlight to 
the color of hay. It should never be cut. The finest hair 
in the world grows on the heads of Dutch and German wo¬ 
men, who have never had scissors applied to it. If it is 
never cut, it will never want cutting, under ordinary cir¬ 
cumstances; but if it falls off, or is abnormally thin, then 
cut the ends every month. Neither should grease be used 
to a child's hair; it does not need it. It should be washed 
daily with soft water, and, when dry, well brushed. This 
is all the care necessary for rapid and ample growth. 

The eyes should not be suffered to be tried by reading at 
twilight or candlelight, and plenty of sleep should be given 
before midnight; girls should go to bed at seven till they are 
twelve years old, and rise early. 

In nothing is it of more importance to take time by the 
forelock than in the matter of beauty. Care of it in child* 
hood never loses its ultimate reward, and spares, much future 
trouble. 

We commend this subject to the most serious considers? 
tion of mothers. 


70 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


CHAPTER XI. 

ORIENTAL PERFUMES, COSMETICS, ETC., AS ASSOCIATED WITH 

BEAUTY. 

Know ye the land of the cedar and vine. 

Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine; 

Where the light wings of Zephyr, oppressed with perfume, 

Wax faint o’er the gardens of Gui in her bloom I 
Where the citron and olive are fairest of fruit, 

And the voice of the nightingale never is mute. 

* * * * * * * 

’Tie the clime of the East; ’tis the land of the Sun.— Btron. 

Luxuries are only sought and enjoyed by people living 
in a high state of refinement. When the Roman Empire of 
the West crumbled beneath the attacks of a horde of bar¬ 
barians, who invaded its fertile plains and laid waste its 
magnificent cities, the arts of civilization, which they were 
unable to appreciate, took refuge in the Eastern metropolis 
where they had been cultivated since the days of Constantine 
the Great. Among these arts perfumery was ranked, and 
the Greek emperors and their court showed for aromatics a 
fondness at least equal to that which had been displayed by 
their Western predecessors. Having at their command all 
the fragrant treasures of the East, they made a lavish use of 
them in private life, and in all public festiyq]s perfumes 
were made to play an important part. Nor were they con-, 
fined to profane purposes, for the Oriental Church had like¬ 
wise introduced them into all their religious ceremonies, and 
their consumption was so large at one time that the priests 
purchased in Syria a piece of ground ten square miles in ex¬ 
tent, and planted it with frankincense-trees for their own 
special requirements. 

After several centuries of glory and splendor, the Eastern 
Empire, torn by religious dissensions, w^as doomed in its 
turn to fall under the aggressions of its enemies, and al- 
thqugh it struggled many years against the followers of Ma¬ 
homet, the Crescent succeeded at last in replacing the Cross 


THE BOOK OP BEAUTY. 


71 


on the proud domes of Constantinople. Tn this instance, 
however, the conquerors were nearly as polished as the van¬ 
quished. If their religion, by forbidding them to delineate 
the form of man in any way, had checked their progress in 
art, it offered no impediment to the pursuit of science, and 
they had already attained considerable proficiency in many 
of its most important branches. To the Arabs, indeed, we 
are indebted for many valuable discoveries in the field of 
knowledge, and these children of the desert may well be 
called the connecting link between ancient and modern 
civilization. 

Avicenna, an Arabian doctor who flourished in the tenth 
century, was the first to study and apply the principles of 
chemistry, which was but imperfectly known to the ancients. 
This extraordinary man, who in a wandering life of fifty- 
eight years found time to write nearly one hundred volumes 
(twenty of which were a General Fnclyopaedia), is said to 
have invented the art of extracting the aromatic or medicinal 
principles of plants and flowers by means of distillation.* 
Perfumes had for many years been knovrn and used by his 
countrymen, and long before Mahomet’s time, Musa, one of 
the chief cities in Arabia Felix, was a celebrated emporium 
for frankincense, myrrh, and other aromatic gums; but 
hitherto the far famed “perfumes of Araby the blest” had 
merely consisted in scented resins and spices. The floral 
world, so rich and fragrant in those favored climes, had not 
yet been made to yield its sweet but evanescent treasures. 
To Avicenna belongs the merit of saving their volatile aroma 
from destruction and rendering it permanent by means of 
distillation. 

The Orientals always exhibited for the rose a partiality al¬ 
most equal to that of the nightingale, who is said to dwell 
constantly among its sweet bowers. It was, therefore, on 
that flower that Avicenna made his first experiments, select¬ 
ing the most fragrant of the species, the Rosa cenlifolia , called 
by the Arabs, Oul sad berk. 

“ The floweret of a hundred leaves, ^ 

Expanding while the dew-fall flows, 

And every leaf its balm receives.” 

* The word cd-etnbic , which was formerly used in England and is still 
u«ed in France to designate a still, clearly shows its Arabian origin. 


72 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


He succeeded by his skillful operations in producing the 
delicious liquid known as rose-water, the formula for which 
is to be found in his works and in those of the succeeding 
Arabian writers on chemistry. It soon came into general 
use, and appears to have been manufactured in large quanti¬ 
ties, if we are to believe the historians, who tell us that when 
Saladin entered Jerusalem in 1187, he had the floor and walls 
of Omar’s mosque entirely washed with it. 

Rose-water is still held in high repute in the East, and 
when a stranger enters a house the most grateful token of 
welcome which can be offered to him is to sprinkle him over 
with rose-water, which is done by means of a vessel with a 
narrow spout, called gulabdqn. It is to this custom that 
Byron alludes in “ The Bride of Abydos,” when he says: 

“ She snatched the urn wherein was mixed 
The Persian Atar-gul’s perfume, 

And sprinkled all its odors o’er 
The pictured roof and marbled floor. 

The drops that through his glittering vest 
The playful girl’s appeal addressed, 

Unheeded o’er his bosom flew, 

As if that breast was marble too.” 

Niebuhr, in his “ Description of Arabia,” mentions like¬ 
wise this habit of throwing rose-water on visitors as a mark 
of honor, and says it is somewhat amusing to witness the 
discomfited and even angry looks with which foreigners are 
wont to receive these unexpected aspersions. The censer is 
also generally brought in afterward, and its fragrant smoke 
directed toward the beards and garments of the visitors, this 
ceremony being considered as a gentle hint that it is time to 
bring the visit to an end. 

According to the same authority, Arabian censers are 
made of wood (probably lined with metal) and covered with 
plaited cane. The gulabdan, or “ casting bottle,” as it was 
called in this country two or three centuries back, is either 
of glass or earthenware in ordinary houses, but among rich 
people both these implements are of gold or silver richly 
chased or qrnamented. 

Mahomet, who was a keen observer of human nature, 
founded his religion on the enjoyment of all material plea¬ 
sures, well knowing that it was the best means of securing 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


73 


the adhesion of liis sensual countrymen. He had forbidden, 
it is true, tlie use of wine, hut simply because he feared the 
dangerous excesses to which it gave rise: the indulgence in 
perfumes was one, on the contrary, he liked to encourage, 
for they assisted in producing in his adepts a state of re¬ 
ligious ecstasy favorable to his cause. He professed himself 
a great fondness for them,.saying that what his heart en¬ 
joyed most in this world were children, women, and per¬ 
fumes, and among the many delights promised to the true 
believers in the Djennet Firdous , or Garden of Paradise, per¬ 
fumes formed a conspicuous part, as will be seen from the 
following description, taken from the Koran: 

When the day of judgment comes, all men will have to 
cross a bridge called A1 Sirat, which is finer than a hair, and 
sharper than the edge of a Damascus blade. This bridge is 
laid over the infernal regions, and however dangerous and 
difficult this transit may appear, the righteous, upheld and 
guided by the prophet, will easily accomplish it; but the 
wicked, deprived of such assistance, will slip and fall into 
the abyss below, which is gaping to receive them. 

After having passed this first stage, the “ right-band men,” 
as the Koran calls them, will refresh themselves .by drinking 
at the pond of A1 Cawthar, the waters of which are whiter 
than milk or silver, and more odoriferous than musk. They 
will find there as many drinking-cups as there are stars in 
the firmament, and their thirst will be quenched forever. 

They at last will penetrate into Paradise, which is situ¬ 
ated in the seventh heaven, under the throne of God. The 
ground of this enchanting place is composed of pure 
wheaten flour mixed with musk and saffron; its stones are 
pearls and hyacinths, and its palaces built of gold and sil¬ 
ver. In the center stands the marvelous tree called tuba, 
which is so large that a man mounted on the fleetest horse 
could not ride round its branches in one hundred years. 
This tree not only affords the most grateful shade over the 
whole extent of Paradise, but its boughs are loaded with de¬ 
licious fruit of a size and taste unknown to mortals, and 
bend themselves at the wish of the inhabitants of this happy 
abode. 

As an abundance of water is one of the greatest desiderata 


< — THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 

in tbe East, the Koran often speaks of the rivers of Para¬ 
dise as one of its chief ornaments. All those rivets take 
their rise from the tree tula: some flow with water, some 
with milk, some with honey, and others even with wine, 
this liquor not being forbidden to the blessed. 

Of all the attractions, however, of these realms of bliss, 
none will equal their fair inhabitants—the black eyed 
houris *—who will welcome the brave to their bowers, 
waving perfumed scarves before them,f and repaying with 
smiles and blandishments all their toils and fatigues. These 
beauteous nymphs will be perfection itself in every sense: 
they will not be created of our own mortal clay, but of pure 
musk. 

We doubt very much if the prospect of inhabiting a place 
with a soil of musk, peopled with ladies composed of the 
same material, would prove a great allurement to us; the 
bare notion of such a possibility would be sufficient to give 
a headache to some of the more sensitive. But in the East 
tastes are different; and it is a singular fact that the warmer 
a country is, the greater is the taste for strong perfumes, 
although one would suppose that the heat, developing to the 
utmost such, powerful aromas, would render them actually 
unbearable. 

As an instance of the fondness which the Orientals ex¬ 
hibit for musk, Evlia Effendi relates that in Kara Amed, llie 
capital of Diarbekr, there is a mosque called Iparie , built by 
a merchant, and so called because there were mixed with the 
mortar used in its construction seventy juks of musk, which 
constantly perfume the temple. The same author describes 
the mosque of Zobaide, at Tauris, as being constructed in 
a similar way: and as musk is the most durable of all per¬ 
fumes, the walls still continue giving out the most powerful 
scent, especially when the rays of the sun strike upon them. 

Many of Mahomet’s prescriptions were of a sanitary na¬ 
ture, and in order to insure their observance by his super¬ 
stitious followers, he gave them, like Moses, the form of re- 
* “Houri” comes trom the words hur al oyoun , “ the black-eyed.” 

t “Waving embroidered scarves whose motion gave 
Perfume forth, like those the Houris wave 
When beckoning to their bowers the Immortal Brave.” 

—Moorr’s Lalla Rookh. 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


75 


ligious laws. Such were the ablutions and purifications or¬ 
dained by the Koran. All true believers are strictly en¬ 
joined to wash their heads, their hands as far as the elbows, 
and tlieir feet as far as the knees, before saying their 
prayers; and when water is not to be procured, fine sand is 
to be used as a substitute. 

When the Turks settled themselves in the Greek Empire, 
they did not rest satisfied' with these limited ablutions, but 
soon adopted the luxurious system of baths which they 
found already established in the conquered cities. These 
baths have been lately introduced into this country; and al¬ 
though what we are offered is but a pale copy of the mag¬ 
nificence of the palaces devoted to that purpose in the. East, 
it might be thought superfluous to dwell on this subject. 

Soap is sometimes used in these establishments, but they 
more frequently employ a sort of saponaceous clay scented 
with the sweetest odors, which is, no doubt," a lineal de¬ 
scendant of that smegma mentioned by Greek writers as 
being in great favor among the Athenians. It is to that 
preparation that Sadi, the celebrated Persian poet, alludes in 
the following beautiful apologue, whereby he illustrates the 
benefit of good society: 

“ ’Twas in the bath, a piece of perfumed clay 
Came from my loved one’s hand to mine, one day. 

‘Art thou, then, musk or ambergris?’ I said; 

‘ That by thy scent my soul is ravished 
‘ Not so,’ it answered, ‘ worthless earth was I. 

But long I kept the rose’s company; 

Thus near, its perfect fragrance to me came, 

Else I’m but earth, the worthless and the same.’ ” 

The rose, as before noted, is the favorite flower of the 
Orientals. The beauty of its aspect and the sweetness of its 
perfume are favorite themes for their poets. The finest 
poem in the Persian language, the “ Gulistan,” from which , 
the above is extracted, means the garden of roses, and Sadi, 
its author, with the naive conceit of Eastern writers, thus 
explains his motives for giving that name to his work: 

“ On the first day of the month of Urdabihisht (May), I 
resolved with a friend to pass the night in my garden. The 
ground was enameled with flowers, the sky was lighted with 
brilliant stars; the nightingale sung its sweet melodies 


0 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


perched on the highest branches; the dewdrops hung on the 
rose like tears on the cheek of an angry beauty; the parterre 
was covered with hyacinths of a thousand hues, among 
which meandered a limpid stream. When morning came 
my friend gathered roses, basilisks and hyacinths, and placed 
them in the folds of his garments; but I said to him, ‘ Throw 
these away, for I am going to compose a Gulistan (garden of 
roses), which will last for eternity, while your flowers will 
live but a day.’ ” 

Hafiz, another renowned Persian poet, was also a great 
admirer of flowers and perfumes, which are constantly re¬ 
curring in his verses, and furnish him with the most charm¬ 
ing similes. Addressing his mistress in one of his Gazels , he 
exclaims: 

“Like the bloom of the rose, when fresh plucked and full blown, 
Sweetly soft is thy nature and air: 

Like the beautiful cypress in Paradise grown, 

Thoa art every way charming and fair. 

“When my mind dwells on thee, what a luster assume 
All the objects which fancy presents ! 

On my memory thy locks leave a grateful perfume. 

Far more fragrant than jasmine's sweet scents.” 

Hafiz seems, like Anacreon, to have particularly wor¬ 
shiped the rose; and, as his Grecian predecessor, he always 
couples in his odes the praise of wine with that of the queen 
of flowers: 

“ In the mirth-enlivened bower, 

Wine, convivial songsters, pour: 

See the garden’s flowery guest 
Comes in happiness full dressed ; 

Joy round us sweet perfume throws. 

Offspring of the blooming rose. 

“ Hail! sweet flower, thy blossom spread. 

Here thy welcome fragrance shed; 

Let us with our friends be gay, 

Mindful of thy transient stay: 

Pass the goblet round ; who knows 
^ When we lose the blooming rose ? 

“Hafiz loves, like Philomel, 

With the darling rose to dwell: 

Let his heart a grateful lay 
To her guardian* humbly pay, 

* The nightingale. 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


77 


Let his life with homage close, 

To the guardiau of the rose.” * 

That perfumes have been in use in the East, to please the 
living and honor the dead, since a very remote period, we 
find a proof in the following story, extracted from a Persian 
writer, relating the death of Yezdijird, the last of the 
Ivaianian race of kings, in the year 652. 

That unfortunate monarch having fled from his dominions 
and taken refuge in the territory of Merv, its inhabitants 
were anxious to apprehend and destroy him; they accord¬ 
ingly sent a message to Tanjtakh, king of Tartary, offering 
to place themselves under his protection, and to deliver the 
fugitive into his hands. Tanjtakh accepted their proposal 
and marched against Merv with a large army; hearing 
which, Yezdijird left the caravanserai where he had 
alighted, and w r andered about unattended in quest of a 
hiding-place. He at last came to a mill, where he begged 
for a night’s shelter. The miller promised him that he 
should be unmolested; but his attendants having remarked 
that he was richly clad, murdered him in his sleep, and di¬ 
vided the spoils among themselves. 

The next day Tanjtakh arrived at Merv, and caused Yez¬ 
dijird to be sought in every direction. Some of the emis¬ 
saries came to the mill, and having remarked that one of the 
servants smelt strongly of perfume, they tore open his gar¬ 
ments, and found Yezdijird’s imperial robe, scented with 
otto of roses and other essences, hid in his bosom. The 
body of the king was discovered in the mill-dam, and 
brought before Tanjtakh, who wept bitterly, and ordered it 
to be embalmed with spices and perfumes, and buried with 
regal honors. The miller and his servants were put to 
death, in punishment for their treachery. 

The taste for perfumes has in no wise diminished among 
modern Orientals; it has, on the contrary, been constantly 
increasing, and now pervades all classes, who seek to gratify 
it to their utmost, according to their means. It is princi¬ 
pally cultivated among ladies who, caring little or nothing 
for mental acquirements, and debarred from the pleasures of 
society, are driven to resort to such sensual enjoyments as 
their secluded mode of life will afford. They love to be in 


78 THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 

an atmosphere redolent with fragrant odors that keep them 
in a state of dreamy languor which is for them the nearest 
approach to happiness. The sole aim of their existence be¬ 
ing to please their lords and masters, the duties of the toilet 
are their principal and favorite occupation. Many are the 
cosmetics brought into request to enhance their charms, and 
numerous are the slaves who lend their assistance to perform 
that important task, some correcting with a whitening paste 
the over-warm tint of the skin, some replacing with an arti¬ 
ficial bloom the faded roses of the complexion. 

“ While some bring leaves oT henna, to imbue 
The fingers - ' ends with a bright roseate hue, 

So bright that in the mirror’s depth they seem 
Like tips of coral branches in the stream ; 

And others mix the kohol’s jetty dye 
To give that long dark languish to the eye 
Which makes the maids whom kings are proud to cull 
From fair Circassia’s vales so beautiful.” * 

Although, according to our notions, red-tipped fingers and 
darkened eyelids are not calculated to increase female loveli¬ 
ness, this may be looked upon as a mere conventional mat¬ 
ter, and it may be fairly presumed that the constant cares 
which the Eastern ladies bestow on themselves have the ef¬ 
fect of increasing and preserving their beauty. This is con¬ 
firmed by most travelers, and, among others, Sonnini in his 
Travels in Egypt thus expresses himself on that subject: 

“ There is no part of the world where the women pay a 
more rigid attention to cleanliness than in those Oriental 
countries. The frequent use of the bath, of perfumes, and 
of everything tending to soften and beautify the skin and to 
preserve all their charms, employs their constant attention. 
Nothing, in short, is neglected, and the most minute details 
succeed each other with scrupulous exactness. So much 
care is not thrown away; nowhere are the women more uni¬ 
formly beautiful, nowhere do they possess more the talent of 
assisting nature, nowhere, in a word, are they better skilled 
or more practiced in the art of arresting or repairing the 
ravages of time, an art which has its principles and a great 
variety of practical recipes.” 

As it may interest some readers to know the composition 
* Moore's Lalla Rookh. 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


79 


of those far-famed Oriental cosmetics, we here transcribe the 
recipes of some of those preparations, for the authenticity of 
which we can vouch, having received them from one to 
whom they were given by a native Arabian perfumer. If 
not useful, they will no doubt be found amusing. 

The kohl, or kheul, in use for darkening the eyelids since 
the time of the ancient Egyptians, is made, by them in the 
following way: They remove the inside of a lemon, till it 
up with plumbago and burnt copper, and place it on the fire| 
until it becomes carbonized; then they pound it in a mortar 
with coral, sandalwood, pearls, ambergris, the wing of a bat, 
and part of the body of a chameleon, the whole having been 
previously burnt to a cinder and moistened with rose-water 
while hot. 

A complexion-pow’der called baiikha , which is used in all 
the harems for whitening the skin, is made in the following 
manner: They pound in a mortar some cowrie-shells, borax, 
rice, white marble, crystal, tomata, lemons, eggs, and helbas 
(a bitter seed gathered in Egypt); mix them with the meal 
of beans, chick-peas, and lentils, and place the whole inside 
a melon, mixing with it its pulp and seeds; it is then ex¬ 
posed to the sun until its complete desiccation, and reduced 
to a fine powder. 

The preparation of a dye used for the hair and beard is 
no less curious. It is composed of gall-nuts fried in oil and 
rolled in salt, to which are added cloves, burnt copper, 
minium, aromatic herbs, pomegranate flowers, gum-arabic, 
litharge, and henna. The whole of these ingredients are 
pulverized and diluted in the oil used for frying the nuts. 
This gives it a jet-black color, but those who wish to impart 
a golden tint to their hair employ simply henna for that pur¬ 
pose. 

That hair dyes have been used in the East for many cen¬ 
turies appears from the following lines, in which Sadi ridi¬ 
cules the habit with a sarcastic spirit worthy of Martial: 

“ An aped dame had dj ed her locks of pray ; 

‘ Granted,’ I said, ‘ !hy hair with silver blent 
May cheat us now ; yet, little mother ! say, 

Canst thou make straight thy back, which time has bent ?” 1 

To this list of Oriental cosmetics we should add an al- 


80 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


moiid paste, called Jiemsia , which is used as a substitute for 
soap; a tooth-powder named souek , made from the bark of 
the walnut-tree; pastilles of musk and amber paste (Tcovrss) 
for burning and also for forming chaplets of beads, which 
the fair odalisques roll for hours in their hands, thus com¬ 
bining a religious duty with a pleasant pastime; a depilatory 
called “ termentina,” which is nothing more than turpentine 
thickened into a paste; and last, not least, the celebrated 
sohnouda, a perfectly white cream, composed of jasmine 
pomade and benzoin, by means of which a very natural but 
transient bloom is imparted to the cheeks. 

The far-famed Balm of Mecca is still greatly esteemed 
among the Orientals, and some even pretend that the limited 
quantity of the genuine article produced yearly is reserved for 
the Grand Seignior’s special use. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu 
does not appear to have shared their admiration for it, for 
she relates in her letters that having had a small quantity 
presented to her, she applied it to her face, expecting some 
wonderful improvement from it, instead of which it made it 
red and swollen for three days. 

The same authority furnishes us with a very accurate 
description of the Eastern mode of wearing the hair; and, as 
fasliioQs are not so liable to change there as they are here, 
we may assume it as applicable to the present period. 
“The head-dress,” says Lady Montagu, “is composed of a 
cap called talpock, which is, in winter, of fine velvet, em¬ 
broidered with pearls or diamonds, and in summer of a light 
shining silver stuff. This is fixed on one side of the head, 
hanging a little way down with a gold tassel, and bound on 
either with a circle of diamonds or a rich embroidered hand¬ 
kerchief. On the other side of the head the hair is laid flat, 
and here the ladies are at liberty to show their fancies, some 
putting flowers, others a plume of heron’s feathers, and, in 
short, what they please; but the most general fashion is a 
large bouquet of jewels made like natural flowers—that is, 
the buds of pearl, the roses of different colored rubies, the 
jessamines of diamonds, the jonquils of topazes, etc., so well 
set and enameled, ’tis hard to imagine anything of that kind 
so beautiful. The hair hangs at its full length behind, di¬ 
vided into tresses braided with pearl and ribbon.” 


TI1K BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


81 


The Turks shave their heads, leaving a single tuft of hair 
on the top, by which they expect Azrael, the angel of death, 
to seize them when conveying them to their last abode. 
They preserve their beard with the greatest care, and make 
it a point of religion to let it grow, because Mahomet never 
cut off his. No greater insult can be offered to a Mahome¬ 
tan than to deprive him of this hirsute ornament; it is a de¬ 
gradation reserved for slaves, or a punishment inflicted on 
criminals. 

The barber of the King of Persia is no insignificant per¬ 
sonage; he enjoys all the privileges and consideration natur¬ 
ally attached to one who has in his charge such a venerated 
object as a royal beard. The dellak, or barber, of the great 
Schah Abbas amassed such riches that he built a splendid 
bridge, which still bears his name; and his modern successor 
erected, not long since, a magnificent palace for himself in 
the vicinity of the Royal Baths at Teheran. 

In addition to the liquid essences and unguents, the Ro¬ 
mans made use of an immense variety of cosmetics for im¬ 
proving and preserving the complexion. Pliny, in his 
“Natural History,” gives a description of these preparations, 
some of which consisted of pea-flour, barley-meal, eggs, 
wine-lees, hartshorn, bulbs of narcissus, and honey; others 
simply of corn-flour, or crumbs of bread soaked in milk. 
They made with these pastes a sort of poultice, which they 
kept on the face all night and part of the day. Some, in¬ 
deed, only removed them for the purpose of going out, and 
Juvenal tells us, in one of his satires, that a Roman husband 
of his time seldom sees his wife’s face at home, but when 
she sallies forth— 

“ The eclipse then vanishes; and all her face 
Is opened and restored to every grace; 

The crust removed, her cheeks as smooth as silk 
Are polished with a wash of asses’ milk; 

And should she to the furthest North be sent, 

A train orthese attend her banishment.” 

The last lines allude to Poppsea, the wife of Nero, who used 
to bathe in asses’ milk every day, and when she was exiled 
from Rome, obtained permission to take with her fifty asses 
to enable her to continue her favorite ablutions. 


82 


THE BOOK OP BEAUTY. 


Ovid, the poet of love, wrote a book on cosmetics, of 
whieh, unfortunately, but a fragment came down to us. We 
give one or two extracts to afford ladies who may be curious 
in these matters an opportunity of testing the virtues of the 
recipes given by the poet. 

“ Learn from me the art of imparting to your complexion 
a dazzling whiteness, when your delicate limbs shake off the 
trammels of sleep. Divest from its husk the barley brought 
by our vessels from the Libyan fields. Take two pounds of 
this barley with an equal quantity of bean-flour, and mix 
them with ten eggs. When these ingredients have been dried 
in the air, have them ground, and add the sixth part of a 
pound of hartshorn, of that which falls in the spring. When 
the whole has been reduced to a fine flour, pass it through a 
sieve, and complete the preparations with twelve narcissus 
bulbs pounded in a mortar, two ounces of gum, as much of 
Tuscan seed, and eighteen ounces of honey. Every woman 
who spreads this paste on her face will render it smoother 
and more brilliant than her mirror.” 

Another recipe lie gives for removing blotches from the 
complexion consists in a mixture of roasted lupines, beans, 
white lead, red niter, and orris-root, made into a paste with 
Attic honey. 

Frankincense he also recommends as an excellent cos¬ 
metic, saying that if it ik agreeable to gods, it is no less use¬ 
ful to mortals. Mixed with niter, fennel, myrrh, rose-leaves 
and sal ammoniac, he gives it as an excellent preparation for 
toilet purposes. 

Besides these, the Romans - also used psilotrum , a sort of 
depilatory, white lead or chalk for the fac e, fucus, a kind of 
rouge for the cheeks, Egyptian kohl for the eyes, barley- 
flour kneaded with fresh butter to cure pimples, calcined 
pumice-stone to whiten the; teeth, and various sorts of hair 
dyes. Of the latter, the most curious was a liquid for turn¬ 
ing the hair black, prepared from leeches which had been 
left to putrefy during sixty days in an earthen vessel with 
wine and vinegar. As, however, blondes were very scarce 
among the Roman ladies, the most fashionable dye was one 
which changed their naturally dark hair to a sandy or fair 
color. This was principally accomplished by means of a 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


83 


soap from Gaul or Germany, called sapo (from the old Ger¬ 
man sepe), and composed of goat’s fat and aslies. It is 
rather remarkable that this wa^ the first introduction of soap 
we find mentioned, and that it was then solely applied to the 
purpose of dyeing the hair. Martial designates this dye un¬ 
der the name of Mattiac balls, because they came from Mat- 
tium, a town of Germany, supposed to be Marpurg, and sar¬ 
castically sends them to an octogenarian, who is completely 
bald, to change the color of his hair. 

There is no doubt that some of these preparations were 
very injurious to the hair; for Ovid, in one of his elegies, 
reproaches his mistress with having destroyed her flowing 
locks by means of dyes. “Did I not tell you to leave off 
dyeing your hair? Now you have no hair left to dye. And 
yet nothing was handsomer than your locks. They came 
down to your knees, and were so fine that you were afraid 
to comb them.” Then he adds, a little further, “Your own 
hand has been the cause of the loss you deplore; you poured 
the poison on your own head. Now Germany will send you 
slave’s hair; a vanquishedhatfon: Will supply your ornament. 
How many times, when you hear people praising the beauty 
of your hair, you will blush and say to yourself, ‘It is a 
bought ornament to which I owe my beauty, and I know 
not what Sicamber virgin they are admiring in me! And 
yet there was a time when I deserved all these compli¬ 
ments.’ ” 

- In such cases, as will be seen from the preceding extract, 
false hair was resorted to; but baldness was not always the 
excuse for wearing such an appendage. The rage for blonde 
hair was so great at one time, that when ladies did not suc¬ 
ceed in imparting the desired shade to their naturally raven 
tresses, they cut them off, to replace them with flaxen wigs. 
This was probably what had been done by the lady referred 
to by Martial: 

“The golden hair that Galla wears 

Is hers ; who would have thought it? 

She swears ’tis hers, and true she swears. 

For I know where she bought it.” 

That false hair was in fashion with ladies may be judged 
from the fact that even busts like that of Julia Semiamira, 


84 


THE BOOK OF BEAUTY. 


mother of Heliogabalus, were made with wigs of a different 
colored marble, which could be removed at pleasure. 

Ladies were not, however, the only ones who tampered 
with their locks. The sterner sex did not disdain to prac¬ 
tice this deceit; and Martial, apostrophizing one of these 
chameleons in human garb, asks him how it is that he who 
was a “ swan before, has now become a crow.” 



THE ENTX 


A New Book for Exhibitions and Home Entertainments 


DIME DIALOGUES No. 18. 

For Homes, Schools and Exhibitions. The Humorous, Seri< us and^Burlesque 
in Colloquy, Minor Drama, Dress Pieces, etc., etc. Arranged lor the Stage, 
Platfoim and Parlor, with tne adjuncts ot fecenery, “Furniture,” Costumes, 
etc., simplified to any situation. 

CONTENTS. 

Fairy Wishes Public School and Exhibition Drama. For several characters. 
No Kose Without a Thorn. A Faice. For two males and one lemale. 

To . Greedy by Half A Lu icrous Diverti&ement. For three males. 

One Good Turn Deserves Another. A Society Episode. For six ladies. 
Courting Melinda. A Boys’ Faice. For thiee boys and one lady. 

1 he New Scholar A Play -ground Episoue. For several boys. 

The Littte Intercessor. A Minor Melo-drama. For four ladies. 

Acting Charai e: Antecedents. For three gentlemen ano three ladies. 

Give a Dog a Bad Name. A Dialogue. For four gentlemen. 

Spring time Wishes, a Dialogue en costume. For six liitie girls. 

Lost Charlie; or, The Gypsey’s Revenge. For numerous characters. 

A Little j ramp. A Dialogue. For three little boys. 

HArd Times. A Drama with a Moral. For two gentlemen and four ladies. 
The Lesson Well Worth Learning. For two males and two females. 


DIME BOOK OF BEAUTY. 

This is a delightful book, just published, full of very Interesting Information, 
useful and practical in its Advice, Directions, Recipes and Methods. It de¬ 
serves a place in the hands of evt ry one who would know what Beauty really 
is, and How to Make It and Retain It. 

* CONTENTS. 

The Power of Beauty; Former Objections to Discussion of the Subject; 
Changes of Opinion; Greek Value for Beauty; Taste for Beauty, and How 
Formed; Passage from the Ancient and Modern Poets; Necessity of a Just 
Sense of the Beautiful; Beauty of Form; What we Owe to it; Beauty in the 
Present Day a National Possession; Duty of Preserving Good Looks; The 
Figure; Shoulders; Waist; Feet; Walk; Methods of Improving the Figuie and 
Walk; Exercise and Diet; Form and Color. The Beauty of the Arm; Outline; 
Color; Movements; The Hand: Shape; Color; Nails; To Whiten the Hands; Red 
Hands; Cause and Cute; Expression of the Hand; Manipulations; Rings; The 
Head and Hair; Shape ot the Head; Breadth; Depth; Pose on the Shoulders; 
Hair; Colors; Quantity; G;ay Hair: Dyeing and its Effects; Strengthening the 
Hair; Modes ot Dressing it; The Upper Part of the Face; ihe Forehead; E>es; 
Eyelids; Eyebrows; The Lower Part of the Face; The Ears; Ear-rings; Jaw; 
Cheeks: Nose; The Mouth; Its Expression; Causes of its >hape; Color of the 
Lips; Their Shape; The Teeth; How to Pieserve Them; The Chin; Complexion; 
English Complexions; Cosmetics; Scripture Notice ot Painting the Face; Dan¬ 
ger of White Paint and Rouge; Milk as a Cosmetic; Natuie of the Skin Explain¬ 
ed; Howto Prcseive it; Soft Water; Effects of Hard Water and Soap; Hot 
Water; Cold Water; Animal Grease; Oil; Violet Powder; Early Rising; Recipes; 
Dress with Respect to Beauty; Power of Dress on Beauty; Fashion; Why so 
Imperative; Long-past Fashions; Form and Co or; M. de Chevrtul on Color; 
Its Effect on the Complexion; Lace, a Giay Color; Size Affected by Color; 
Stripes; Throat: Shortened or Length* ned; Adaptations of Dress to Different 
Ages; Dress with Respect to Beauty; Gloves; Fit, Cut, Length, Color; Boots: 
Effect on Size of Foot; Artistic Dress; Tl e Girl; The Mairon; Ihe O.d Lady; 
Care of Beauty in Infancy; Beauty to be Thought of in Infancy; Inseparable 
from Health: Preserving the Complexion; Air, Exercise, Diet; Balb; Light; 
Tanning and Freckling; Eyelashes; Teeth: Gums; Figure; Walking; Reclining; 
Feet Exercises; Hair; Eyes; Oriental Perfumes, Cosmetics, etc., as Associated 
with Beauty. 

The above books are sold by all newsdealers, or sent, postpaid , to any ad¬ 
dress on receipt of price— Ten Cents Each. Address, 

BEADLE AND ADAMS, Publishers, 98 William Street, New York. 







Popular Dime Hand-Books. 

BEADLE AND ADAMS. PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK. 

" Each volume 100 12 mo. pages , sent post-paid on receipt of price —ten cents each. 

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4— DIME BOOK OF DREAMS- Their Romance and Mystery ; with a complete in¬ 
terpreting Dictionary. Compiled from the most accredited sources. 

5— DIME FORTUNE-TELLER—Comprising the art of Fortune-Telling, how to 

read Character, etc. 


6- DIME LADIES’ LETTER-WRITER —Giving the various forms of Letters ol 

Schn >1 Days, Love and Friendship, of Society, etc. 

7- DIME LOVERS’ CASKET-A Treatise and Guide to Friendship, Love, Court¬ 
ship and M image. Emb acing also a complete Floral Dictionary, etc. 

8- DIME BALL-ROOM CO .’PANION —And Guide to Dancing. Giving rules 
of Etiqnwtt >. hints on Private Parties, toilettes lor the Ball-room, etc. 

9- BOOK OF 100 GAMES—Outdo r and In door SUMMER GAMES for Tourists 
and Famili •- in Hint: ninry. Picnics, etc., compi ising 100 Games, Forfeits, etc. 

10- DIME CHESS INSTRUCTOR— A complete band-book of instruction, giving 
the enterr.aih.mg mysteries of this most tinere-ting and fascinating of games. 

11- DIME BOOK OF CROQUET — A comple’o guide to the game, with the latest 
rule-, diagrams, Croquet Die ionarv. Parlor Cia quet, eic. 

12- DIME BOOK OF BEAUTY—A delightful book full of interesting informa- 
i ion. [i, de-n rves a place in the hands of evi ry one win, w uld be beautiful. 

DIME ROBINSON CRUSOE-In large octavo, double columns, illustrated. 


Hmi-Books of Games 

DIME BOOK <>F CROQUET. 

DIME GUIDE T > SWIMMING. 

DIME CRICKET AND FO( »TB VLL. 
DIME fI OK OF PRDE<TRI ANiSM. 
f IMF RTHING ANo DRIVING. 
DIME YACHTING AND ROWING. 


Family Hand-Books. 

1. DIME cook BOOR. 

2. DIME RECIPE B<>< >K. 

3 D ME HOUSEKEEPER’S GUIDE. 

4. DIME FAMILY 1 HYS CIAN. 

5. DIME HRESsMAKlNG AND MIL¬ 

LINERY. 


'I’he above books are sold by Newsdealers everywhere, or will be sent. post- 
paid. to any address, on receipt of price. 10 cents each. BEADLE & ADAMS, 
Publishers, 9S William Street, New York. 























































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